


World Reset

by DarkGreiga



Series: Megaman ZX: Era of MegaMen [6]
Category: Rockman ZX | Mega Man ZX, Rockman Zero | Mega Man Zero
Genre: F/M, FanFiction.Net, ZX Advent secret ending spoiler, Zero 4 ending spoiler (sort of)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 14:56:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 32,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16120856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkGreiga/pseuds/DarkGreiga
Summary: Sequel to Black and White Mega Men. With both Albert and Weil finally gone, things should be fine, right? Not quite! Vent and Aile along with the Hunters Ashe and Grey must prepare for bigger battles against familiar but stronger enemies, all under the control of the one they used to respect and trust.





	1. Family Plans

**Author's Note:**

> Final batch update, please enjoy!

Two years had passed since Weil was defeated once more by the four Chosen Ones, mostly by Vent. The number of Maverick attacks had slowly decreased, but the Mavericks didn’t completely disappear. Even so, he married Guardians were living happily in the Guardian Base as the Hunters went back to live in the Hunter Camp.

It was late at noon in the Guardian Base and the pink airship was filled with the Guardian members as they had just gone back from their daily patrols or doing requests for the people of Innerpeace. As the other Guardians were taking a break while having some fun chatting with their fellow Guardian friends, the married Guardian couple, Vent and Aile, was sitting anxiously in the medic wing, watching as the older nurse was checking some files in a folder.

Vent and Aile held their hands together as they sat in front of the counter, watching Muguet as she went through the files inside the folder she was holding. Muguet finally closed the folder and let out a long sigh before tossing the folder down on the counter in front of her and looked at the anxious brown-haired Guardians.

“Well?” Vent spoke up impatiently, “How is it?”

Muguet let out another sigh and turned her head away from the couple, looking down on the folder instead, “Well… I’m not sure what to say to you two about this… You two might be able to have a baby, even with some mechanical parts in your body from the fact that you’re actually humanoids, but… I can say that I can’t guarantee that you two can have one soon…”

Without another word, Vent released Aile’s hand, much to Aile’s surprise, “Vent?” Aile saw that her husband rose from his seat while having his head lowered before leaving the room silently. Aile let out a sad sigh before turning back to Muguet, “I’m sorry for Vent’s actions, Muguet… I know you’ve tried your best for us.”

Muguet shook her head and smiled, “No, it’s okay,” Muguet turned to the door where Vent had gone off to and her smile turned into a frown, “I can tell that he must be very disappointed, though.”

Aile nodded in agreement before putting her hands together on her lap, “I know he is. The truth is… Vent was the one who wanted a child the most,” Aile lowered her head, “He said that he wouldn’t insist having one if I don’t want to, but I wish…” Aile raised her head, traces of tears were seen in her eyes, “I wish that I can give him one… He’s given me so much happiness, so I thought I could repay him by having a child…”

“Now, now, please don’t cry…” Muguet walked over to Aile and patted her back before sitting next to her, “I promise, I’ll do what I can to help!”

“Thanks… Muguet…” Aile wiped her tears away and forced a smile before getting up from her seat, “I’ll go and find Vent now… I’m sure he’s disappointed by the news, but I’ll be there to comfort him.”

“Alright,” Muguet nodded before she got up from her seat as well, “It seems like you’ve been a good wife to him, Aile.”

Aile smiled as a faint blush appeared on her face, “That’s who I want to be! I want to be his loving wife!”

Aile went out through the door and headed towards the elevator, already expecting where her husband might be. She pushed the button to go up to the deck and got out from the airship to be greeted by the orange color of sunset. Aile looked around on the deck and found Vent, leaning against the railing as he looked up at the darkening sky.

“I knew it that you’re going to be here,” Vent was surprised by the familiar voice, turning around to see that Aile was standing by the door.

“Aile…” Vent saw as she walked over to him before he let out a sigh, “Sorry about earlier… I shouldn’t have run off like that…”

“It’s okay, I understand,” Aile leaned on Vent’s shoulder a little before putting her hand on Vent’s, which was on top of the railing, “I know how you feel, because I feel the same way,” Aile looked up at Vent’s green eyes, “You know, ever since you asked about if I wanted to have a child, I always thought how it would feel like to be a mother… to feel how my mom would feel when she had me…”

“Aile…” Vent pulled his wife into a hug, “I’m sure that you’ll be a good and loving mother… just like yours…”

“Thanks Vent…” Aile’s grip on Vent’s hand became tighter as she felt that more tears were starting to fall from her eyes, “But… I don’t feel like I deserve to have someone as kind as you to be my husband…”

“What are you talking about?” Vent broke the hug and looked at Aile with a smile, “You were the one who looked after me the most other than Boss since he rescued us from that Maverick raid. I’m just returning the favor,” Vent wiped the tears on Aile’s face, “So stop crying and start smiling okay? You know how much I like you when you’re smiling…”

Aile let out a laugh, “I suppose I know…” Aile turned to look at the sunset, with Vent’s arm around her shoulders, “It’s the sunset… Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Yeah,” Vent nodded in agreement, “I wonder why we hadn’t come up here together to watch the sunset before?”

“I don’t know… Maybe because we were busy with all the fighting and stuff?” Aile let out a sigh, “But it’s been two years we’re having this kind of peace here…” Aile paused for a moment while looking at the sunset before she remembered something, “Hey, I wonder how Ashe and Grey are doing now…”

“Now that you mention it, we haven’t heard much from them since our wedding,” Vent turned to Aile and let out a laugh, “I wonder what kind of mess they’re in right now…”

In the Hunter Camp on the ground, six Hunters were sitting in the 01 building’s café with some cards in their hands. The Hunter with silver ponytailed hair scanned the other Hunters’ faces while hiding her grin behind her cards before she slammed her cards on the table, knocking away some of the Energy Crystals on the table.

“Score! I win again!” The young woman exclaimed loudly, while the other silver-haired Hunter sitting on her left put his cards on the table in disappointment.

“Aw, man!” The Hunter turned to the young woman, “Ashe, why are you so good at emptying my pockets?”

“I have no idea, Grey! Maybe you’re just unlucky to lose your crystals to me!” The young woman, Ashe said proudly, while the other Hunters laughed in the background.


	2. The Betrayal

It was early in the morning, but the Hunter Camp was more lively than usual. Most of the Hunters were gathering in the 04 building where the transerver was along with the big screen for important transmissions. The two top Hunters were still in their room, with Ashe still trying to wake up Grey after knowing about the recent transmission.

“Come on, Grey!” Ashe was pulling Grey’s cables, but the Reploid refused to get off from his bed, “Grey, it’s not the time for fooling around! This is very important and I’m very serious when I say it’s very important!”

“Alright, just stop pulling on my cables!” Grey turned to Ashe with tired eyes, “You’d better not wake me up so you can ace me in another card game!”

Ashe let out a sigh, “You’re still on about that? I told you that it’s not my fault that got some good cards!”

“Can you just get to the point about this ‘very important’ thing!?” Grey asked angrily before sitting up on his bed.

“It’s Master Mikhail, and he needs both of us to see some important footage taken yesterday,” Ashe said as she saw Grey getting off his bed and stretching his arms, “I think he said it was something about Master Thomas. The transmission is still on, so let’s just go and ask him about the details.”

“Alright, let’s head to the 04 building,” Grey lazily motioned for Ashe to come with him as he walked pass by her.

The two top Hunters went out of the 00 building and headed out towards the 04 building, where the other Hunters were. The face of the Sage Trinity member was on the big screen next to the transerver, waiting for the silver-haired Hunters to come. Ashe and Grey walked over to the screen, noticed by the Sage Trinity member, _“Ah, there you two are!”_

“So,” Ashe started, “What were you saying about Master Thomas earlier?”

“Is that how you’re supposed to talk to a higher-up?” Grey asked, while Ashe ignored him completely as her eyes were fixed on the screen.

_“About Thomas…”_ Mikhail hesitated for a moment before continuing, _“I’m afraid that he’s betrayed us…”_

“What!?” Ashe and Grey said in disbelief, getting the attention of the other few Hunters in the room.

_“Yes,”_ Mikhail nodded, _“I still can’t believe what he had said either, but I still have the footage from the security camera in the room if you want to see it.”_

“Please Master Mikhail!” Grey pleaded, “Let us see it! Let see if Master Thomas has truly betrayed us!”

Mikhail hesitated once more, before nodding and his face disappeared from the screen. The footage of the room in the top floor of the Legion HQ came into sight, along with the two remaining Sage Trinity members. Thomas was looking out at the buildings around the HQ through the glass window, while Mikhail was looking through the data on the popup screen in front of him.

_“… To bring new life into the world, eh?”_ Thomas suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence in the room.

_“In the mission report from Ashe and Grey about their mission against Albert… They said that Albert had said some outrageous things,”_ Mikhail spoke up, his eyes still fixed on the popup screen.

_“Mikhail… Do you think it presumptuous for us to give birth to new life?”_ Thomas continued, getting the attention from his fellow Sage Trinity member.

Mikhail looked up from the screen and turned to the red-haired man, who still had his back turned to him, _“How absurd… Thomas, you couldn’t possibly hold fast to such foolish imaginings.”_

Mikhail was about to turn back to the screen again and turned back to the red-haired man when Thomas spoke up once more, _“There are laws that give equality to Humans and Reploids, correct? Don’t you remember? Those were passed because Albert and I agreed on them.”_

Mikhail closed the popup screen and turned to the man once more, _“W-What are you saying?”_

Thomas turned to Mikhail with a slight frown on his face, _“Give humans robotic bodies, and give Reploids mortality. So, where do you think the Human bodies for the Reploids are?”_ Thomas walked a few steps closer to Mikhail before continuing with his voice raised, _“What do you think happened to the original Reploid data from before we gave them mortality?”_

Four people teleported into the room, standing in front of Thomas as they turned to look at Mikhail with their glowing red eyes. The Hunters gasped as they recognized the four people standing in front of Thomas. Mikhail took a few steps back in horror, looking at his fellow Sage Trinity member along with the four people familiar to him.

_“Thomas… You…!”_ Mikhail spoke up, still in a shocked state.

Thomas closed his eyes and let out a smile, _“Albert was wrong, so I helped the Hunters. But I do think he was right about one thing,”_ Mikhail saw as Thomas had reopened his eyes and the smile on his face turned into an evil one as the four people walked closer towards him, _“This world needs to be reset.”_

The screen faded into black before Mikhail’s face came back to the screen, _“That’s what happened…”_

“No way…” Ashe said in disbelief before turning to Grey, who still had a shocked look on his face, “But didn’t those four joined the Guardians two years ago? Why are they now working for Thomas?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure if we can consider them our allies anymore…” Grey lowered his head and curled his hands into fists, “Darn it! After we’ve finally had our peace in two short years…”

_“Yes, but Thomas’ actions had been more suspicious since last year,”_ Mikhail spoke up once more, regaining the attention of the two Hunters, _“He was mostly gone from morning until late at noon, but the information about his locations during those times wasn’t in the Legion HQ’s records. Everything about what he’s been doing or where he’s been is gone, as if it had been erased without me knowing.”_

“Maybe it is erased…” Grey concluded, “Master Mikhail! We’re going to find out more about those four Chosen Ones! If we can find out about them, maybe we can keep track on what Master Thomas has been doing all this time!”

Mikhail nodded at the Hunters, “I’m counting on you, Ashe, Grey,” Mikhail cut the transmission before Ashe turned to Grey.

“So, what’s the plan? How are you going to find out about those four?” Ashe asked, feeling clueless.

“If those four had joined the Guardians,” Grey turned to Ashe, “we should ask the Guardians about them!”


	3. Mega Rebels

In the command center of the Guardian Base, the blonde commander was looking at the window in front of her sadly. Prairie let out a sigh as she recalled the news which she had got only a few minutes ago.

**_-Flashback-_ **

_“Commander Prairie,” One of the three operators turned to the commander in pink, “We have an incoming voice transmission.”_

_“Who is it from?” Prairie asked and the operator turned back to the screen in front of her._

_“It’s from someone with the name Grey. The location where the transmission is being sent from is the Hunter Camp,” The operator replied, not turning back to the commander._

_“Put him through,” Prairie replied, getting a nod from the operator before the familiar voice was heard through the small speaker in front of Prairie._

“Commander Prairie, this is Grey from the Hunter Camp,” _Grey started._

_“Grey, it has been quite a while, hasn’t it?” Prairie replied with a smile, “How are you and the other Hunters doing now?”_

“We’re fine, Prairie,” _Ashe’s voice was heard,_ “But we’ve got something to ask you as the commander of Guardians.”

_“Something you want to ask me?” Prairie asked back._

“Yes,” _Grey’s voice was heard once more before Ashe’s faint complaints were heard,_ “Sorry,” _Grey coughed from the other side before continuing,_ “Can I ask you about how Aeolus, Atlas, Thetis, and Siarnaq are doing nowadays?”

_“Huh? The four Chosen Ones? Hold on a moment,” Prairie pushed a button on her computerized desk and a screen popped out in front of her, “Let’s see… Huh?”_

“What is it? Did you find something?” _Ashe’s voice was heard once more before Grey’s voice was heard faintly in the background,_ “Hey! Let me do the speaking this time!”

_“Yes,” Prairie closed back the pop up screen in front of her, “They had been missing for a year, after they all went on a mission together to investigate the research lab where Vent fought against Weil.”_

“That’s it!” _Ashe’s and Grey’s voice was heard in unison._

“Move it, Ashe! I can handle this!” _The sound of something was heard before Grey continued,_ “Commander Prairie, we have some bad news to tell you! Master Thomas is using those four Chosen Ones to do what Albert had envisioned before: to reset the world!”

_“I-Impossible!” Prairie replied in disbelief, “Grey, is that true?”_

“Unfortunately, yes…” _Grey replied before letting out a sigh,_ “We’re not entirely sure what he is going to do, but according to what his objective is, it’s not going to be a good thing.”

_“I understand…” Prairie shortly replied, still feeling a bit shocked in the inside, “Thank you for letting me know.”_

“No problem!” _Another sound of something falling was heard before Ashe replied and ended the transmission._

**_-End of Flashback-_ **

Prairie let out another sigh before the door behind her slid open and the brown-haired Guardians entered the room. Vent took a step forward before he spoke up, “Is there another mission?”

Prairie nodded before turning to the two married Guardians, “Yes… I want you two to go to the research lab and find any clues about the four missing Guardians.”

“Huh? Do you mean Aeolus and the others?” Aile asked, getting a nod from the Guardian commander, “But the four of them had mysteriously disappeared last year!”

“Yes, but finding them might give us a clue about our next ‘enemy’…” Prairie replied, getting tensed looks from the two Guardians, “There’s a chance… that Master Thomas from Sage Trinity has betrayed us all…”

“What!?” Vent and Aile asked in disbelief.

“B-But… Master Thomas…” Vent started, still in shock, “He was there, in our wedding, and yet he’s the priest! How come that he’s gone evil now!?”

“We don’t know, but that’s what we need to find out,” Prairie replied sternly, “Vent, Aile, please go down to the research lab and let me know about anything suspicious.”

“Roger!” The two Guardians said in unison before they headed towards the transerver room and went to the research lab.

An hour had passed since the Guardians arrived and they were looking around at the last room in the area. The hole where Vent fought Weil last time was still there, and the broken ceiling caused by the fight between them and the Biometal Pseudoroid years before. Vent and Aile, both in ZX form, let out a sigh as the lab room was the same as the last time they saw it.

“There’s nothing here,” Vent said before turning to Aile, “Is it possible for those four to get lost before reaching this place?”

Aile shook her head, “I doubt it,” Aile took another look at the room, “Those four are all capable of solving the hard puzzle game Silure had made before. It’s the maze kind of puzzle, remember?”

“There’s no way I can ever forget that,” Vent let out a laugh, “I got lost on the first turn!”

Aile smiled and laughed along with him, “I’m no better either… I lost to Sardine, even though he had never been into the complicated areas on the field.”

“Well, all of the Guardians seem to have different levels of skills on many subjects,” Vent commented with a smile before his expression turned into a serious one, “Aile, do you hear something?”

“Huh?” Aile went silent for a moment and some faint voices of people talking were heard, “I think I hear something…” Vent and Aile turned to the entrance of the room, “And it’s coming closer!”

“Ugh, there’s no place to hide here,” Vent looked around the room in panic, but saw that there wasn’t any good place to hide.

“Ashe! I told you that you don’t have to help me with the report thing!” A familiar voice was heard from behind the door before it opened to reveal the Hunters standing in front of the door.

“Huh?” Aile saw the Hunters, who had stopped arguing and turned to them, “Ashe? Grey? What are you two doing here?”

“Aile!” Ashe noticed the female Guardian, before seeing Vent standing behind her, “Oh, you’re here too…”

“I’ll ignore that you said that,” Vent walked over to Aile’s side before turning, “Hey, Grey! It’s been a long time, has it?” Vent’s eyes turned to a scar over Grey’s nose, “Hey, what’s with that scar?”

“This?” Grey pointed at the scar, “I got this scar when Ashe triggered another trap during a trip with the other Hunters.”

Vent let out a laugh, much to Ashe’s annoyance, “She’s the same as always, huh?”

“Yeah, whatever…” Ashe folded her arms in annoyance, “Thanks to Grey, both of us are standing here right now!” Ashe turned to Aile, “So, what are you guys doing here?”

“We’re here to find any clues for the missing Chosen Ones,” Aile replied with a serious look on her face, “If Thomas is the traitor, then he might have something to do with this…”

“He really is the traitor,” Grey replied, getting the Guardians’ attention, “And the four other Chosen Ones are involved.”

“You surely have known a lot, haven’t you?”

“What!?” Ashe asked, feeling surprised, before she and the others looked around the room to find the source of the voice, “That voice… It can’t be…”

“Master Thomas!” Grey recognized the voice as he and the others continued looking around, “Where are you!? Show yourself!”

“This is not the time for me to show myself to you all.”

The ground suddenly started shaking violently, making the Chosen Ones lose their footing and fell to the ground. Aile looked around, but saw that nothing was around them, “W-What’s going on…?”

“I… don’t know…” Vent raised his head, and saw the silhouette of four people before four doors opened up below them, “What!?”

The four fell into the door, followed by four figures going into the holes they fell into.


	4. Chaotic Wind

Vent closed his eyes as he felt himself falling until he hit something hard and reopened his eyes. He sat up and looked around, finding himself to be on a broken platform on his own before the sound of footsteps came closer and closer. Vent got up to his feet and looked to the direction where the sound came from and saw a man familiar to him with green armor.

“Aeolus!” Vent recognized the man, who stayed silent and pulled out his twin pink sabers instead, “Hey! What do you think you’re doing!?” Vent looked at Aeolus’ red eyes before he hesitantly pulled out his green ZX saber, “You’re not the same Aeolus who joined the Guardians before, are you?”

“My only desire has always been to rid this world of fools such as you and your friends,” Aeolus spread his arms wide with his sabers in his arms, “Thomas has promised us the ideal world, where everything is perfect and fools such as you do not exist!”

“Humans aren’t made to be perfect from the start!” Vent reached for his ring on his finger, “That’s why… that’s why they need other people! Together they make each other perfect!”

“Foolish ideals coming from foolish people…” Aeolus pointed his shorter saber in his right hand at Vent, “Let’s see whose ideals are much suited in this world!”

Vent quickly ran towards Aeolus’ side and swung his saber, but Aeolus blocked the attack with the longer saber in his left hand. Vent pulled out his buster and charged it before locking his saber with Aeolus’ pink one. Vent released his charged shot, knocking Aeolus away from him, but the red-eyed man didn’t seem to be bothered by the attack.

Aeolus crossed his sabers in front of him as Vent sent out his Rising Fang attack and completely blocked the attack, much to Vent’s surprise before sending out a few cyclones at the surprised Chosen One. Vent was knocked back by the cyclones, but managed to get back to his feet and jump away as Aeolus slammed both of his sabers down and destroyed some of the ground where Vent used to be.

_‘What power…’_ Vent thought as he saw the destruction caused by Aeolus’ sabers.

A shadow was suddenly seen over Vent’s head, but he noticed soon enough before Aeolus dove down with his crossed sabers to strike him. Vent landed safely behind Aeolus and charged his saber before he ran towards the Wind Mega Man. Aeolus noticed as Vent came closer, but didn’t bother turning around to face him and swung his longer saber instead, completely blocking the impact of Vent’s charged saber.

Vent jumped back a little before charging in and slammed his saber once more, but Aeolus blocked it with his other saber effortlessly. Aeolus knocked Vent’s saber away from his before he spun around with his sabers spread wide, hitting Vent continuously as he was spinning before he suddenly stopped and sent out a small cyclone towards him.

Vent was blown away by the cyclone, giving Aeolus the chance to follow the attack with his three-slash combo and sent Vent roughly to the ground. Vent shakily raised his head and looked up at Aeolus, who was looking down at him with a cold stare with his glowing red eyes. Vent pushed himself up, enduring the pain all over his body and clutched tightly to his saber before Aeolus suddenly disappeared from his sight.

_‘Where… where is he…?’_ Vent looked around, panting, but the Wind Mega Man was nowhere to be found around him.

A flash of green and pink passed behind Vent before he felt a cut of his back. Vent quickly turned around with his saber in front of him, but the only thing he could see was the dark nothingness around him. Vent felt another cut on his right hand and made him drop his saber before a calm wind blew around him.

_‘This is… Aeolus’ power… The power from Model H… The power of the wind…’_ Vent shakily knelt down and picked up his saber before holding its hilt tightly, _‘But… I have the power too… The power of a legendary hero…’_ Vent looked at the green saber he was holding, _‘The power from Model Z… and Boss’ spirit…’_

“How persistent…” Vent looked up from his saber and saw Aeolus standing in front of him, barely damaged from the fight, “You may say whatever you want about your own ideals, but ideals are just merely empty ideals if you don’t have the power to make them come true,” Aeolus drew the end of his sabers together, “If you choose to give up, then I might as well give you a chance to live in the ideal world Thomas is going to make for us.”

“Sorry, but I hate perfectionists like you,” Vent let out a smile, but his eyes were glaring at Aeolus, “I feel better being imperfect, because I can be together with someone else and make each other perfect.”

“What a fool,” Electricity started forming on the end of Aeolus’ sabers, “There are only two kinds of people in this world: the best and the worst. The best people are meant to be perfect and to lead the worst people, but the worst people are always rebelling against the change. They are the fools who decided to be foolish for the rest of their lives.”

Aeolus sent out the wave of electricity at Vent, who took the attack directly and was knocked away to the ground, “S-So what…? Maybe… people who call others fools… are the stupid ones here…”

Aeolus growled in anger before approaching Vent and dug his foot on the collapsed Chosen One’s stomach before pointing his saber down to Vent’s throat, “I hate to get my saber dirty with the dirty blood of imperfect beings like you, but I have no regret if I take your life away right here, right now.”

Vent grabbed Aeolus’ foot tightly as he stepped on him harder, making him slowly lose consciousness. Aeolus raised his sabers above his head and was about to slam it down on Vent, but he had disappeared from under his foot in a white light. Aeolus let out another angry growl before transforming back to his human form, in which he had his light green hair longer and was tied into a ponytail, before he teleported out of the place.


	5. Frozen Field

“Aaah!!!” Aile yelled as she fell into the hole below her feet.

She closed her eyes shut, not caring about the small frozen platform below her. She landed hard on the platform before she gathered the courage to reopen her eyes, seeing that she was standing on a frozen platform in the middle of a dark field. She slowly got up to her feet and stood carefully to avoid slipping on the slippery ground before pulling out her buster.

“As aware as you’ve always been, Aile?” A familiar voice was heard and Aile looked around with her buster in front of her.

“Thetis, is that you?” Aile asked, and the said person came out from the shadows, already transformed into his Model L form.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Thetis asked with a smile, but Aile refused to remove her buster away from him, “What’s that? Aren’t you going to shoot me with that thing?”

Aile replied with another smile, “Depends on the answer you’re going to give to my questions,” The expression on Aile’s face turned into a serious one, “Are you and the other three Chosen Ones working for Thomas now?”

“Is that what you and the others want to know so badly?” Thetis let out a sigh, “We’re not working for him. It’s that simple.”

“Is that true?” Aile kept pointing her buster as she looked at the Ice Mega Man in distrust, “Master Thomas has betrayed the Legion, and you along with Aeolus, Atlas, and Siarnaq have been missing for a year in a mission to investigate this research lab. Do you have any explanation on that?”

Thetis let out a chuckle, “Nothing gets past you, huh? Alright, I’ll tell you since you’ve asked me without involving any direct violence,” Thetis pulled out his staff and held it in his left hand as he looked at Aile with an evil smile, “We’re working _with_ Thomas, to create the ideal world.”

“Ideal world?” Aile lowered her buster a little, “And if I have to guess, you’re all planning to destroy the world before building a new one on its remains, aren’t you?”

“Bingo!” Thetis spun his staff before moving it into his right hand, “But you’re not going to stop it! We’re going to make a clean world, a world free of sea pollution, with a death penalty for anyone who dares to pollute the sea! Care to join?”

“Sorry, but I think a death penalty for pollution is too much,” Aile charged her buster before pointing it back at Thetis, “I like things clean, but a little pollution to the world isn’t avoidable.”

Aile released her charged shot at Thetis, who quickly dodged out of the way before he spun his staff and water started rising around them. Thetis activated his propellers and swam in the water, dodging the buster shots Aile had sent him easily. Thetis spun his staff, summoning three ice dragons from the frozen ground to swim towards Aile.

Aile pulled out her saber and slashed the ice dragon into small pieces of ice, only to have the ice pieces to be hurled at her. Aile took some damage from the unexpected ice pieces, before turning back to Thetis who was nowhere to seen anymore. Aile looked around with her charged buster in front of her, but Thetis was nowhere in sight.

A blur of blue color suddenly appeared in front of her before Thetis swung his staff down at her as he jumped down in front of her, but Aile blocked the attack with her buster. Aile kicked Thetis away from her before releasing her charged shot, only to be bounced off as Thetis spun his staff in front of him.

Two ice dragons suddenly appeared on Aile’s left and right side, surprising the female Guardian, before they bit her hands. The ice dragons broke up into smaller ice pieces before they disappeared into the water, leaving the bite marks on Aile’s arms to freeze a bit of Aile’s arms. Aile tried holding her buster properly and aimed it at Thetis, but her hand was shuddering out of the cold from the ice on her arms.

“Cold, isn’t it?” Thetis asked as he swam closer to Aile before putting his staff under her chin, “But that’s how ice is. It’s cold, but it’s beautiful.”

“B-But not… when i-it’s used… f-for evil…” Aile pointed her buster at the ice on her other arm and released a charged shot, breaking the ice.

“Using your own weapon to destroy the ice…” Thetis saw as Aile had destroyed the ice on her other arm, freeing her from the cold ice, and let out a smile, “A clever move.”

“Thanks,” Aile replied before pointing her charged buster at Thetis, “But don’t take compliments from enemies.”

“It’s fine,” Thetis swam backwards and distanced himself from Aile before slamming his staff on the ground, breaking the frozen ground a little, “Because it’ll be fun to see you dodge this!”

Aile gasped as many small ice dragons were formed on Thetis’ staff before they all swam towards her. Aile pulled out her saber before releasing her charged shot to the ice dragons and destroyed some of them. More ice dragons swam towards her, but Aile swung her saber around and destroyed the dragons before they could even reach her.

“Impressive,” Thetis smiled out of impression, “But let’s see if you can handle this!”

Thetis pulled out his staff from the ground before a much bigger ice dragon came out from the small hole created by the staff. Aile put her saber away and released a charged shot at the ice dragon, but her shot bounced off the dragon’s head, much to Aile’s surprise. The dragon opened up its mouth wide and ate Aile’s whole body, freezing her completely inside a tower of ice.

Thetis let out a smile before putting his feet back to the ground and deactivated his propellers. Thetis walked over to the ice tower with his staff in his right hand and was about to slam his staff down at the ice, but Aile had disappeared from inside the ice with a white light. Thetis saw the ice tower breaking before the water around him was drained away.

Thetis transformed back before he teleported out of the area.


	6. Melting Flames

Grey closed his eyes as he braced for impact from the fall, hoping to land on a platform soon. Grey felt that his body had stopped moving and opened his eyes, finding himself to be standing on a small platform in the middle of a lava field. Grey quickly jumped away from the platform and landed on the bigger platform on his side, seeing as the platform he was on slowly melted from the heat of the lava.

“Ugh…” Grey suddenly fell to his knees, “It’s really hot in here…”

“This heat is nothing,” Grey weakly turned to direction where the voice came from and saw a woman familiar to him, only with her long hair reaching her shoulders, “If you can’t stand this heat, then you’re nothing but a weakling!”

“Atlas…” Grey pushed himself back to his feet, “Why are you here…?”

The woman, Atlas, pulled out an orange-colored Biometal from her pocket before she transformed into her Model F form, “This is what Thomas would want us to do. We won’t let anyone get in our way of making an ideal world!”

“Ideal world…” Grey saw as Atlas had held her orange-colored knuckle busters in her hands, “But why would he even do that!? Has Thomas taken the evil ways of Albert!?”

Atlas shook her head, “Wrong. Albert may have inspired him about resetting the world to create in ideal one, but Thomas has his own methods of making that ideal world,” Atlas pointed both of her knuckle busters at Grey, “But what kinds of methods he’s using, I don’t care. As long as he kept his promise of having an ideal world without weaklings, I don’t mind melting you down into nothing!”

“Just… just try it if you can!” Grey pulled out both of his buster guns, “Even without my past, I still have my friends! As long as I have them, I’m not going to lose to the likes of you!”

“Interesting… A weakling who thought that he’s so strong just because he has friends to back him up,” Atlas let out an evil smile, “I’ll let you know that you’re nothing with your weak friends!”

“We’ll see who the stronger one here is!” Grey started by releasing a charged shot at Atlas, but she dodged out of the way before the shot could hit her.

Grey morphed into Aeolus and sent out a barrage on cyclones at Atlas, who stayed still on her place before she sent out a firebomb at him. Grey cut the firebomb into half with his shorter pink saber, only to have it exploded on the saber and knocked him back. Atlas slammed her left knuckle buster, cracking the ground open as the lava started flowing into the formed cracks.

Grey put the end of his sabers together and sent a ball of electricity at Atlas, who took the attack head on and got paralyzed. Grey transformed back to his Model A form before releasing a Homing Shot at Atlas, who was still paralyzed by his earlier attack. Atlas wasn’t knocked back by the attack and stayed in her place until she recovered from the paralysis seconds later.

Atlas slammed her left knuckle buster and sent out a wave of fire at Grey, who jumped away to dodge and countered with his charged shot. Atlas sidestepped to dodge before slamming her right knuckle buster, sending another wave of fire at Grey. Grey dodged the attack by jumping away, but landed on the cracked ground and almost fell into the lava.

Atlas suddenly appeared behind him, ready to push him into the lava with her left knuckle buster, but Grey had ducked down and knocked Atlas to the ground behind him instead. Atlas got up to her feet before rapidly shooting out fireballs from Grey, who didn’t have the time to dodge the entire fireballs and braced for the impact.

The stray shots landed around Grey, but he noticed that not all of the fireballs around him were red in color as fire should normally be. Some black-colored fire was also burning in front of him and some on his arms, which he used to block the incoming fire. Grey waved his arm to put out the fire, but the black-colored fire remained in its place.

“W-What’s this?” Grey asked as he stared at the black fire on his left arm, “I can’t put it out!”

“Just as I expected,” Atlas suddenly spoke up as she walked a little closer to him, “The black fire won’t leave the weaklings unless I want it out from the burned bodies.”

“Darn it…!” Grey glared at Atlas, but noticed that his vision was starting to get blurry.

“But it won’t be much of an entertainment for Thomas anymore if that black fire kills you first,” The black fire on Grey’s arm went out before Grey fell to his knees, “You’re weak, and much weaker than I remember you are. Your strength is no match for mine.”

“S-Shut… up…!” Grey forced himself back to his feet before clutching to his buster guns tightly, “I… I can still… fight!”

Atlas let out a smile before getting her knuckle busters ready once more, “If that’s true, then you’re not going to get killed before you can defeat me!”

Atlas charged at Grey before punching him with her left knuckle buster, sending him flying away from the pool of lava. Grey slowly got back to his feet, panting, not noticing that Atlas had already got behind him. By the time Grey noticed her presence and turned his head around, Atlas had got her right knuckle buster slammed on his head, knocking him towards the pool of lava.

Grey landed a few inches away from the lava and tried getting up again, only to be kicked to the side by Atlas. Grey held his back where Atlas had kicked her before he shakily looked up at her as she glared down at him with her glowing red eyes. Atlas kicked him high, sending him flying above the lava pool, but Grey’s body disappeared in a white light before he could fell into the lava pool.

“Pathetic,” Atlas spoke up in irritation before she transformed back and teleported away from the area.


	7. Pitch Black

Ashe felt herself falling into the hole under her feet, which seemed to be a bottomless pit. She closed her eyes to brace for impact, which never seemed to have come. She reopened her eyes, but her surroundings were completely black, as if she never actually opened her eyes. She tried moving her body, but she didn’t feel herself moving at all. She was starting to get panicked until a white flash came to her eyes.

_Fire was burning everywhere. Hundreds of Galleon Hunters were running around, shooting out at anything they detected to me moving until they had all stopped moving. Hysterical cries were heard all over the area as more and more wooden shacks were burned down, silencing the cries. A young girl was running through the burned shacks, occasionally stopping when a person came into sight._

_“Have you seen my mommy and daddy?” The girl asked the man who was leaning on a burning pillar before the man fell down with his bloody arms spread wide._

_The girl shrieked in fear before running away, only to crash into a few more Galleon Hunters with their guns pointed at her head. The girl’s body was shaking out of fear before she lost her footing and fell backwards, letting her long silver hair to be partially dipped into a small pool of blood. The girl backed away as the Galleons came closer and closer to her._

_The girl closed her eyes shut and braced for the shots which might hit her body, but they never came. She reopened her eyes and saw the Galleons were on the ground, destroyed, along with three men in orange suits and guns in their hands standing over the fallen Galleons. One of the men who had no visor over his eyes but had a mask over his mouth and nose knelt down to the frightened girl and patted her head._

_“Hey there, little girl… Come with us, and we’ll get you to safety,” The man offered her a hand, which the girl took hesitantly._

_“Nicol! What are you doing there!?” The man with a blue visor asked, “We need to find Siarnaq and get out of this place!”_

_“Calm down, Lazarus!” The man with a red visor said, “We don’t have the time to look for the survivors and Siarnaq at the same time!”_

_“Red’s got a point,” The man with the face mask, Nicol, said as he carried the girl in his arms, “We have to trust Siarnaq to find a way out of this place,” Nicol turned to the girl in his arms, “What’s your name?”_

_“My… name…?” The girl looked up at Nicol, “I’m… Ashe…”_

Ashe shot her eyes open before panting, finding herself lying down on something invisible. She got up and looked around, seeing that the area around her was completely black. She looked at her hands, which were still visible to her, and saw that she was still transformed. She let out a sad sigh as she recalled the vision she had just seen.

_‘That vision… was it from my memory? The forgotten bitter and hurting memory of my childhood?’_ Ashe let out another sad sigh before she noticed that a figure had teleported in front of her, “Y-You! Siarnaq!”

Siarnaq looked at her silently, glaring at her with his glowing red eyes. A scar was seen over his right eye, and a cross-shaped scar was seen on his left cheek. Siarnaq pulled out his purple Biometal before he transformed into his Model P form, “OPPONENT CHECK: MEGA MAN MODEL A. MEMBER OF DISHONORABLE TRAITORS.”

“Traitors?” Ashe asked, but got no answer as Siarnaq just glared at her with his glowing red eyes, “Wait, are you saying that the Hunters betrayed you after they saved me?”

“RESPONSE CORRECT,” Siarnaq shortly replied with his robotic voice before he disappeared from Ashe’s sight.

_“Here we go again…”_ Model A’s sighing was heard in Ashe’s head, _“Try the Giga Crush. Maybe that’ll put an end to his weirdness…”_

Ashe let out a laugh as she got her buster guns ready, “I like your idea, Model A!”

Just Ashe was about to release her rapid shots, a shuriken suddenly struck her hand and cancelled the attack. She looked to the direction the shuriken came from, but saw that no one was there. Just as she was about to release her rapid shots once more, a few kunai had flown towards her direction and hit her hands, making her drop her buster guns.

Ashe picked up her weapons once more before releasing her rapid shots, but there was no sound of the shots hitting anything. Siarnaq suddenly appeared in front of her punched her aside, knocking to the ground before he disappeared once more. Ashe got back to her feet slowly, only to be knocked back once more as Siarnaq’s knee made contact with her chin.

Ashe landed hard on the ground and was about to get up to her feet, but some kunai had flown towards her and knocked her back to the ground. She stayed down on the invisible ground and scanned the area with her Homing Shot gun, but Siarnaq wasn’t detected anywhere nearby. Ashe sat up, only to be sent back into the ground with her face down as a shuriken knocked her down from the back.

Ashe got up shakily while holding on to her buster guns tightly before Siarnaq appeared in front of her with a shuriken ready in his left hand while a few kunai was between his fingers in his right hand. Ashe quickly dodged the incoming attack, but Siarnaq stayed still with his weapons in his hands, leaving the female Hunter confused.

Siarnaq suddenly disappeared from her sight once more before she was rained down by the kunai from above. Ashe put her buster guns above her head to block the incoming kunai, not noticing that a shuriken was heading towards her legs. Ashe got knocked down by the shuriken before the kunai rained down on her.

Ashe lost her consciousness and Siarnaq reappeared in front of her with a kunai in his hand. Ashe’s body disappeared in white light, leaving Siarnaq’s kunai to hit the invisible ground where Ashe used to be. Siarnaq pulled out another kunai and threw it hard at the ground where Ashe used to be before he transformed back.

Siarnaq let out a wicked laugh before he fell to his knees and teleported away from the area with his laugh still echoing in the area.


	8. Enemies or Allies?

A week had passed since the four Chosen went to the research lab. The commander of the Guardians had just come out of the medic wing, where the four Chosen Ones were resting while recovering their wounds from the battle. Prairie let out a sad sigh as she made her way back to the command center with her mind wandering about.

_‘I can’t believe how Vent, Aile, and the Hunters met the missing four Guardians and were involved in such brutal fights…’_ Prairie stopped in front of the door leading towards the command center and looked back, _‘How could Master Thomas do such things only to fulfill his desires?’_

“Commander Prairie!” Prairie snapped out from her thoughts as a Guardian had approached her along with two people following behind him, “My team had checked the research lab once more, but there are no signs of Thomas or the other four Chosen Ones there,” The Guardian turned to the two people behind him, “We only found them there, hiding behind a broken shelf.”

The people stepped forward from behind the Guardian and revealed themselves. One was a male Reploid with his long light blue hair tied to a ponytail and was wearing dark purple clothes. His red eyes were filled with confusion as he looked up at Prairie. The other one was a female Reploid with long green hair, and was hiding behind the male Reploid with her red eyes looking down at the ground.

“Hey, who are they?” Ashe’s voice was heard as the two Guardians and Hunters had gone out of the elevator.

The green-haired girl quickly hid behind the boy as she noticed the four coming towards them. Prairie turned to the four Chosen Ones and saw that the bandages they had earlier on their bodies were no more, “Are you all okay? Are you still hurt?”

“We’re okay, Prairie. Muguet told us that we’re free to go now,” Vent replied before he turned to the two Reploids, “But more importantly, who are they anyway? I haven’t seen them around here or the city.”

“P-Prometheus… I-I’m scared…” The girl whispered as she hid behind the boy.

The five people’s eyes grew wide as they heard the girl’s whisper, “PROMETHEUS!?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m Prometheus,” The boy replied casually before he turned to the girl hiding behind him, “And this is my little sister, Pandora.”

“P-Pandora!?” Grey suddenly went over to the Reploid siblings with a surprised look on his face while looking at Pandora, who was surprised to see him approaching, “You’re _that_ Pandora, who was trying to kill me because I’m the so-called Defective!?”

Pandora hid behind Prometheus and started pulling on the back of his clothes, “W-Who are you…?”

“Wait, doesn’t she remember us?” Ashe asked as she approached Pandora from Prometheus’ right side, only to have Pandora cling to Prometheus’ left side.

“I’m not sure we’ve met before,” Prometheus said as he looked up at the four Chosen Ones, “But if we have, then I guess we must’ve lost our memories somehow…”

“Maybe…” Aile spoke up before putting her finger under her chin as she started thinking, “I think it was because of that time that Weil absorbed the two of you, but you guys were completely gone!”

“Yes, I remember now!” Vent spoke up before turning to the Reploid siblings, “Can you guys tell us anything that you can remember? Anything will do.”

The siblings went silent for a moment as they looked at each other before they turned back to the Chosen Ones, “Sorry, but our names are the only thing we can remember now.”

“I can see that,” Ashe flatly said before she approached the siblings once more, “The other thing I can tell is that these two aren’t like the Prometheus and Pandora we all know,” Ashe turned back to the other three, “I do remember Prometheus being a real psycho and Pandora isn’t as timid as she is now!”

There was a short pause as all eyes in the area were on the Reploid siblings before Prairie spoke up and broke the silence, “For the time being, we’ll let these two stay here in the base. I’m not sure if Thomas is involved with this, but we’ll find out more about him and the siblings if he is involved,” Prairie turned to the Guardian beside her, “Maquereau, thank you for bringing these two here.”

“You’re welcome, Commander!” The Guardian, Maquereau saluted before he went back to the transerver room.

“The four of you should show them around the base,” Prairie turned to the Reploid siblings with smile, “You don’t have to be shy about anything. Just ask us when you need anything.”

“Thank you,” Prometheus nodded and smiled before Prairie went back to the command center and he turned to the four Chosen Ones, “We’ve lost our memories, so I hope you don’t mind introducing yourselves first.”

“My name’s Aile,” Aile started before she pointed at Vent, “This is Vent, my partner and husband.”

Grey walked in front of the two Guardians and turned to Pandora, “U-Um… Pandora?” Pandora peeked from behind Prometheus, “I-I’m Grey, and I’m a Hunter. I don’t live here, but sometimes I come here and go to my favorite place here,” Grey rubbed the back of his neck nervously, “W-Would you like me to show you?”

“Nice going, Grey! You’ve got yourself a date!” Ashe bluntly commented, making Grey blush out of embarrassment.

Pandora looked up at Prometheus, who gave her a nod, before she turned back to Grey with a small smile, “T-Thank you… Grey…”

“And who might you be?” Prometheus casually pointed at Ashe.

“I’m Ashe, the top Hunter you called a bug!” Ashe gave Prometheus a fake smile.

“Oh, I did that before?” Prometheus asked before he gave her an apologetic look, “Sorry for that…”

Ashe let out a sigh before she walked over to Prometheus and put him into a headlock, much to Pandora’s surprise as she moved away from her brother and Ashe, “Alright, I’ll forgive you if you can be my little brother for a day or two!”

Aile let out a laugh as she saw Prometheus almost being chocked by Ashe’s headlock, “I guess Ashe has a thing for little brothers…”


	9. Nostalgic Memories

Two days had passed since Prometheus and Pandora had stayed with the Guardians. The Hunters had come to visit every single day out of Grey’s request as he enjoyed hanging out with Pandora, leaving Ashe to be with Model A as they travelled back and forth between the deck, cafeteria, and Vent’s and Aile’s bedroom door.

_“Ashe, are you sure you’re okay?”_ Model A asked worriedly as they passed Vent’s and Aile’s room for the fifth time that day, _“We’ve done nothing but walking around the Guardian Base and we’ve passed Vent’s and Aile’s door for like five times already!”_

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Ashe replied with an annoyed tone, not turning to the hovering Biometal following behind her, “I just don’t know what to do! I don’t have a topic to talk about with Prairie and Prometheus is out in the city!”

_“Then why don’t you try going to the city for a change? I’m getting kinda bored with this same kind of view over and over again,”_ Model A noticed that Ashe had stopped walking, _“What’s wrong?”_

Ashe let out a sigh as Model A hovered in front of her, “I’m not sure, but I feel kind of lonely right now…” Ashe let out another sigh before she looked at the elevator in front of her, “Grey’s been hanging out with Pandora a lot, so I guess that he’s in love with her,” Ashe turned back to the door leading to Vent’s and Aile’s bedroom, “And I hardly ever see those two in the middle of the afternoon like this when there are no missions to do.”

_“Yeah…”_ Model A hovered in front of Ashe’s eyes, _“But look on the right side! We don’t have to worry about having Prometheus or Pandora trying to kill us anymore, or even listening to Prometheus’ psychotic lines!”_

Ashe let out a chuckle, “I guess you got a point, Model A,” Ashe let out another sigh before an idea struck her, “Wait, I’ve got an idea about what to do today!” Ashe grabbed Model A suddenly, much to the Biometal’s surprise, “We’re getting our lives of fighting back!”

_“Surely, I don’t really like the idea but… I guess it’s better than going through the same place over and over again…”_ Model A gave in to Ashe’s idea before the Hunter put the Biometal into her pocket as she dashed back towards the Guardians’ room.

“Vent! Aile!” Ashe banged on the Guardians’ door, but ignored the fact that they didn’t give her an answer, “Hey! Whatever you two are doing, you better put it off for today and head for the command center! We have something important to do today!”

“Alright Ashe, we’ll be right over there!” Aile’s faint reply was heard before some rustling sounds of the bed cover were heard, “Vent, we have to put on our clothes now!”

Ashe ignored the sounds from inside the bedroom and ran towards the elevator, going up to the deck area to see Grey and Pandora talking by the railing, “Hey you lovebirds!” The two Reploids turned to the female Hunter with a blush on their faces, “Come to the command center! We’ve got something to do today!”

Ashe went back into the airship before the two decided to follow her. Prometheus came out of the transerver room and saw the three people heading his way. Prometheus let out a smile and waved at them, “Hey there, Ashe! I see that Pandora and Grey are also with you.”

“Enough with the talking and come with us,” Out of Prometheus’ surprise, Ashe dragged him from his place as the four of them headed towards the command center.

The doors leading to the command center slid open and the two Hunters along with the Reploids came into the room. A worried Prairie was looking at the newcomers in the room while Vent and Aile, with their hair and clothes slightly messy were glaring at Ashe with annoyed faces. Aile, who had her hair untied and was holding her blue hair band, approached Ashe with an annoyed look on her face.

“This better be important, Ashe,” Aile spoke up to the female Hunter with an annoyed tone.

“It is important, and you guys are going to love it!” Ashe took a deep breath before letting out a smile, “Let’s get to the lab where Prometheus and Pandora were created and see if we can get their memories back!”

“WHAT!?” The other three Chosen Ones asked in disbelief.

“Ashe, you can’t be serious!” Vent said, still in shock, before he pointed at the Reploid siblings, “Once they get their memories back, they’re going to hunt us down! Are you out of your mind!?”

“But what else can we do now!?” Ashe asked back angrily.

“I think I agree with Ashe,” Prairie spoke up, getting the attention of the others in the room, “Prometheus and Pandora might know something about Thomas or the other four Chosen Ones that we don’t know.”

There was a short silence in the room before Aile spoke up, “If that’s the case, then we should go and check. Thomas has been inactive for over a week, but I doubt that he’s given up on his ambitions.”

“You too, Aile?” Vent turned to his wife, who gave him a nod before she tied her long brown hair, “Alright…” Vent turned to Grey, who was standing next to Pandora right behind Ashe and Prometheus, “Grey, what about you? Are you coming?”

“Uh…” Grey turned to Pandora, who looked at him in confusion, before he turned back to Vent, “I guess… I guess I’ll come…”

“Alright, that settles it,” Ashe spoke up, “Let’s head to the lab now, everyone!” Ashe turned to the Reploid siblings, “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you’re not hurt by anyone.”

“T-Thank you…” Pandora replied shyly before the six of the headed for the transerver room and teleported themselves to the mysterious lab.

The six of them walked through the lab with the four Chosen Ones transformed into their Model ZX and Model A forms, but not a single Mechaniloid was seen as they made their way into the room with two capsules. Prometheus walked over to the first capsule, while Pandora walked over to the other capsule with Grey following behind her.

“This is…” Prometheus whispered as he ran his hand, “I remember…” Prometheus turned to the three Chosen Ones, “I remember being inside this capsule before…”

“I knew it…” Aile spoke up before she and Vent approached Prometheus, “Is there anything you remember other than this capsule?”

Prometheus turned back to the capsule and sadly shook his head, “Sorry, but that’s the only thing I remember from this…”

Meanwhile, Pandora was looking up at her capsule sadly before Grey suddenly put a hand on her shoulder. Pandora turned to see the frown on Grey’s face, “It’s okay if you don’t remember your past, you don’t have to force yourself to remember,” Grey turned away and let out a sigh, “I don’t remember about my past either… I didn’t even remember my own name before you told me…”

“Grey…” Pandora whispered as she held Grey’s hand in hers, “Don’t be sad…”

“P-Pandora…” Grey turned back to Pandora, ignoring the blush on his face.

“You two make a really nice couple, I see!” The two was surprised by the sudden statement and turned around to see Ashe with a sly grin on her face, “And don’t mind me, just pretend that I’m not here!”

The sound of glass breaking was heard suddenly and the Hunters along with Pandora turned to see that a sonic boom attack had destroyed Prometheus’ capsule and heading towards Pandora’s. Grey quickly grabbed Pandora as he took her away from the capsule while Ashe followed them from behind and the sonic boom soon made contact with the capsule.

“Ashe! Grey! Are you two okay!?” Vent asked as he along with Aile and Prometheus approached the three.

“We’re fine,” Ashe replied before seeing the broken wall behind Vent and two silhouettes were seen behind the smokescreen created by dust and debris, “More importantly, we’ve got some company.”

The six of them turned to the two figures, which put them in shock, especially the two Guardians. The smokescreen cleared out completely and two figures came into the room through the hole on the wall. One was a dark red Reploid holding a purple saber while the other one was another Reploid without a helmet on his head, but had a visor over his eyes, red armor on his body, and long dark blonde hair.

“N-No way…!” Vent backed away in disbelief, “Omega… and… Boss…”

The blond Reploid let out a smile, “It’s been a while, Vent, Aile…”

“G-Giro…” Aile whispered as she looked at the blond Reploid, “But why are you here, and why are you with Omega?”

The dark red Reploid put his purple saber away before turning to the Guardians with his glowing red eyes, “Who are you? How do you know my name?”

“Omega’s lost his memories too…” Grey turned to Pandora, who was hiding behind him, “Just like her and Prometheus…”

“Omega,” Giro pulled out his green saber, “I’ll take it from here. You can go back,” The dark red Reploid just nodded silently before teleporting away from the area. Giro swung his saber around as he walked towards Vent and Aile, “I want to test you two whether or not you’re suited to survive and keep on living in the ideal world Lord Thomas is making.”

“Thomas…! Boss, you’re kidding right?” Vent approached Giro, who had his saber in front of him, “You’re not really working for him too, are you?”

Giro let out a smile, “Vent, I don’t recall you being so soft to your enemies before,” Giro turned to Aile, “At least, not as soft as Aile.”

“Stop this, Giro!” Aile pleaded, “Please come back to us… and let’s all fight Thomas together…”

“That’s not what I had in mind,” Vent noticed as Giro had his saber aimed at Aile.

“LOOK OUT!!!” Giro swung his saber at Aile, who was too shocked to move, but Vent had jumped in the way and took the attack instead.

Vent was knocked back against Aile, who was doing her best to hold him before they both turned to Giro, who had pulled back his saber, “It’s not good at all, Vent…” Giro turned to Vent, who was barely conscious in Aile’s arms, “I thought that you’ve got stronger over those years, but maybe you haven’t got any stronger at all.”

Giro teleported out of the room and left the shocked Guardians along with the Hunters and the Reploid siblings. Aile knelt down and lied Vent down on the floor while holding on to his helmet, “Vent, are you okay?”

“I’m okay…” Vent put a hand over his chest, where the wound he got from Giro’s attack was, “He missed… the vitals…”

Aile let out a sigh of relief, “Thank goodness…”

_“Everyone, we’ve got some trouble!”_ Prairie’s voice was suddenly heard from the Guardians’ and the Hunters’ communicator, _“Mavericks… They’ve started appearing in the city, and I don’t know why!”_

“Thomas!” Ashe spoke up, “That’s got to be him!” Ashe reached for the communicator on her ear, “Prairie, take Vent out from here and we’ll on our way to the city!”

_“Understood,”_ Prairie replied from the other side before Vent’s body disappeared in a flash of white light.


	10. Omega Challenge

A week had passed since the Guardians and Hunters encountered Omega and Giro once more, but they weren’t given the time to think as Thomas’ Maverick attacks were keeping them busy. As Aile was out in the city to fight the Mavericks, Vent decided to stay in the base and he was lying down on the bed he and Aile shared before letting out a sigh.

_“Vent, please come to the command center. This is important,”_ Prairie’s voice was heard from the intercom, making Vent get off the bed and go out of the room.

The door slid open and Vent went into the command center to be greeted by the worried look on her face, “If it’s the mission about the Mavericks, I’m not going. If it’s somehow about Boss, then I’ll go on my own.”

“Vent…” Prairie moved away to the side to reveal a popup screen behind her, “I wish that I don’t have to force you to go, but…” Prairie turned to the pop up screen as Vent approached it, “Thomas wants you to come on your own to the research lab again. He gave you this challenge message.”

“A challenge…” Vent repeated as he read the message on the pop up screen before nodding, “Alright, I’ll go. Don’t tell anyone that I’m going to take a challenge from Thomas unless you have no choice,” Vent turned away from the screen and looked at the door instead, “I don’t want anyone to get worried and I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of him, not when I’m still this weak…”

“Vent…” Prairie saw as Vent ran out of the door, “No… Vent, you’re not weak… They’re just too strong…”

Vent stood in front of the door leading to the command center for a moment with his head lowered before he suddenly raised his head and turned to Fleuve’s lab. The lab’s door slid open, surprising the old scientist as he hid a brown object behind him when he saw Vent coming into the room. Fleuve walked backwards as Vent approached him until his back reached the computer behind him.

“Fleuve, I know that you’ve been working for that Biometal again,” Vent spoke up, “Are you finished making the replica of Model O?”

Fleuve was silent for a moment before he let out a sigh in defeat, “So you know that I’ve been working on it, huh?” Fleuve took out the brown Biometal from his back, “I’ve just finished it a few minutes ago and I think it only contains Omega’s power only, and not the soul.”

“Let me have it, Fleuve,” The old scientist looked up at the brown-haired Guardian, who had a serious look on his face, “I need its power.”

“Vent…” Fleuve looked at the Biometal he was holding before looking back at Vent, “You can’t use it anytime you feel like it. The power contained in this Biometal is too powerful, so I’m not entirely sure if you can fully control it,” Fleuve handed the Biometal to Vent, “Use it only when you’re completely out of options, only as a last resort.”

Vent nodded before taking the Biometal and smiled at the old scientist, “Thanks, Fleuve,” Vent put the Biometal in his pocket, “I promise that I’m going to use this power carefully.”

Vent went out of the room and headed towards the transerver room to teleport himself to the research lab. Vent transformed into his ZX form and looked around the destroyed lab, before the sound of footsteps were heard echoing in the room. Vent pulled out his saber and turned to the direction where the footsteps came from to see the dark red Reploid walking towards him with his purple saber ready in hand.

“Omega!” Vent put his green ZX saber in front of him in defense, “Where’s Boss and Thomas?”

“Giro doesn’t have the time to take care of you now,” Omega replied as he looked at Vent without any emotions on his face, “He is busy helping Lord Thomas create the idea world by erasing this crumbling one.”

“Then fight me! You’ll tell me where they are when I win!” Vent charged at Omega with his saber, but Omega had easily blocked the incoming saber with his purple one.

“Lord Thomas has told me that you, a rip-off copy of me, had defeated me more than once before,” Omega swung his saber, knocking Vent’s off his hand, “However, Lord Thomas has given me life and more power than Weil had given me before.”

Omega pushed Vent away with his other hand, knocking him against the wall. Vent slowly got up and saw that Omega was walking towards him with the Reploid’s location not too far away from his knocked saber. Vent pulled out his ZX buster and released a few regular buster shots, only to bounce off Omega’s armor.

Omega picked Vent up by the neck before throwing him over his head, making him land near his green saber. Vent took his saber and charged at Omega, who still had his back turned to him, until he suddenly turned to him and stopped Vent’s saber with his two fingers. Vent’s eyes grew wide in disbelief before Omega swung his purple saber and destroyed Vent’s green one.

Vent threw away his broken saber before he pulled out his buster once more, only to have it grabbed by Omega before he crushed it in his arms. Vent, having no other weapons to fight, used his own fists as he punched and kicked Omega while the dark red Reploid easily blocked the attacks. Vent was about to punch Omega’s chest with his right hand, but Omega caught it before he threw Vent to his side towards the remains of the lab.

Vent’s armor had some cracks on it as the impact from Omega’s throws had damaged him greatly. Vent saw that Omega was walking towards him once more, but he felt that his armor couldn’t hold any more attacks and transformed him back to his human form. Vent knelt down before trying to find something on his feet to knock Omega away, until his arm felt something inside his pocket.

_‘Model O…’_ Vent looked at the pocket where he put the brown Biometal before taking it out, _‘Fleuve told me to use this only when I’m out of options…’_ Vent turned back to Omega, who was getting closer and closer to him, _‘I guess… that time is now!’_

Vent suddenly stood up with Model O along with a slightly cracked Model X in his hands. Omega looked at the Biometals in Vent’s hands before stopping to look at him, “What are you planning to do now?”

Vent let out a smile, “Using my trump card,” Vent put the Biometals in front of him, “Rock ON! Model OX!”

The ground started shaking for a bit before a sphere of white light engulfed Vent’s whole body. A dark red armor similar to Omega’s appeared on Vent’s body along with a purple saber in his hand. The light died down to reveal Vent in his OX form before he turned to look at Omega. Instead of Vent’s normal green eyes, Vent’s eyes were blood red like when he first transformed into his OX form. Omega was about to get his purple saber ready, but was stopped when a familiar voice was heard in the room.

“That’s enough, Omega. It is my plan to draw him here,” The red-haired man teleported behind Omega, “Your job here is to make him our servant, and he is already one of us now.”

“Yes, my Lord,” Omega bowed down before he teleported out of the area, leaving Thomas and Vent in the research lab room.

Thomas let out a smile as Vent stood in his place, “That old scientist didn’t know that I was the one who sent that Biometal data for him to make,” Thomas turned to Vent, “You’ll become a powerful asset to my plan, thanks to the mind control data I put alongside the Biometal’s original data.”

Thomas let out an evil laugh before him and Vent teleported out of the room, leaving Thomas’ laugh to echo in the whole room.


	11. Out of Control

“It was another regular Maverick attack,” Aile reported as she stood in front of Prairie in the command center, “There are a few injured citizens, but their injuries aren’t severe and there are no lives taken in the battle. None from the citizens or Guardians.”

Prairie nodded and smiled, “Thank you for your good work, Aile,” Prairie noticed the frown on the female Guardian’s face, “Is something the matter?”

Aile let out a sigh, “It’s just… I’m worried about Vent… He’s so depressed after meeting Giro, not to mention that he has been losing his battles lately…” Aile let out another sigh, “Has he come out of the bedroom yet?”

“I gave him a mission this afternoon, but he hasn’t come back ever since,” Prairie turned back to her desk before typing on her computer, “And he hasn’t sent reports here yet…”

The door in the command center suddenly slid open and the old scientist came into the room with a worried look on his face, “Prairie, I’m afraid that I have some bad news.”

“What is it? Is it about Vent?” Aile asked worriedly, getting a hesitant nod from Fleuve.

“Actually, he had taken the Model O replica I’ve been working on, but he didn’t know that I’ve also placed a tracking device on it,” Fleuve took a deep breath before he faced the two females who were looking at him, “Vent’s location is detected in Undersea Volcano, where Albert’s hideout used to be.”

“The Undersea Volcano?” Prairie asked, getting a nod from Fleuve, “That’s strange… I sent him to the research lab, but why would he be in that place right now?”

“Prairie, let me go after him,” Aile turned to Prairie with a serious look on her face, “I have to make sure he stays out of trouble.”

“Aile…” Prairie looked at Aile before she finally nodded, “Alright, but make sure you take Ashe and Grey with you just in case something happens.”

“We’ll come with you too,” The people in the room turned to the door as Prometheus and Pandora came in, “We need to come with you to the Undersea Volcano. Pandora here has a feeling that we might find something in there.”

“Alright,” Aile nodded before turning back to Prairie, “We’ll be off then.”

A few moments later, Aile along with the Hunters were walking on the bottom of the sea with inactive volcanoes on the background. Aile and Ashe took the lead while Grey was walking slowly behind them and ignored the two’s conversation about how the lab were mysteriously fixed after the Hunters saw it crumbling down before Ouroboros rose from the sea. Grey let out a sigh as he recalled the events with the Reploid siblings a few minutes earlier.

**_-Flashback-_ **

_“Are you sure you’ll be fine on your own?” Aile asked as the three Chosen Ones saw the siblings in front of the branched path beside them._

_Prometheus nodded in reply, “Don’t worry, we’ll be okay.”_

_Pandora nodded in agreement, “We don’t want to give you trouble…”_

_“I’m not troubled with you two around! Not at all!” Grey spoke up, “Don’t worry Pandora, I’ll make sure that you and your brother are safe.”_

_Pandora giggled seeing Grey’s reaction, “Thank you Grey… but we’ll be fine…”_

_“Alright, that settles it!” Ashe suddenly spoke up, “You two go that way, and we’ll go this way!”_

**_-End of Flashback-_ **

Grey let out a sigh and walked ahead, not noticing that the two females in front of him had stopped walking. Grey crashed into Ashe, who completely ignored the Reploid behind her as she stared at the figure standing ahead of them.

“Hey! What’s happening?” Grey asked in confusion, but the two females ignored him.

Grey walked around the two and saw the figure ahead of them, who had a dark red armor and was holding a purple saber, “No…” Aile whispered in disbelief as she eyed the ring on the figure’s finger, “It’s… Vent…”

“Is he in control this time?” Ashe asked before the figure looked at them with his glowing red eyes, “Maybe not…”

Vent dashed at the three Chosen Ones with his purple saber on his side, but the three had jumped out of the way before the saber could hit them. They slowly landed back on the ground as they were still underwater, but they were fast enough to dodge as Vent charged at them once more. Aile pulled out her buster and aimed it at Vent, but refused to shoot as he came closer and closer.

_‘No use… I can’t shoot him… I don’t want to shoot Vent!’_ Aile lowered her buster, not noticing the distance between her and Vent’s saber.

“Look out!” Ashe yelled and snapped Aile back to reality before noticing that Vent was about to slash her, but Ashe’s reflect laser had knocked him away from her.

Vent landed safely on the ground before he jumped up and did a rolling slash, sending small sonic boom attacks at the three. The Chosen Ones dodged the attack and Grey released his charged shot, knocking him away from them. Vent pulled out his dark grey buster and released rapid charged shots at the three, knocking them off the ground.

Vent swung his saber and sent out a sonic boom, hitting Grey before paralyzing him. Vent charged at Ashe and swung down his saber at her, but Ashe blocked the saber with her own buster gun. Vent pushed himself back and released more rapid charged shots at them, creating a smokescreen to cover the area they were in.

The smokescreen soon disappeared, leaving Vent standing tall in front of them, barely damaged. Aile had put away her buster and looked at Vent, “Vent, please stop this… Please go back to normal, Vent…”

“It’s no use, Aile!” Grey turned to Aile, who wasn’t listening to him, “Aile! Vent’s not in control! We have no other choice but to fight him!”

Vent put his saber to his side before he disappeared from the three’s sight and suddenly reappeared in front of Aile, who was surprised to see him, before he swung his saber across her stomach and created a big gash on it. Aile was knocked back against the Hunters, who held her back before she fell, before they noticed the blood coming out from Aile’s wound.

“Oh no! We’ve got to get her out of here!” Ashe said as she saw the wound on Aile’s stomach.

“V… Vent…” Aile whispered weakly as her vision started getting blurry before she lost consciousness.

“Commander Prairie! Get us out of here, now!” Grey said in his communicator in panic before turning to Aile, who was unconscious in Ashe’s arms, “Aile’s injured and we’ve got to get her out of here before she loses too much blood!”

Vent charged at the three once more, but they had teleported out of the area and left Vent to cut water instead.


	12. The Unexpected News

“Ow… my head…” The light blue-haired Reploid said as he held his head after teleporting back into the transerver room and turned to his sister, “Pandora, are you okay? Does your head ache too?” Pandora replied with a nod before they went out of the transerver.

Meanwhile, Aile was lying down on the bed in the medic wing as Muguet was wrapping her injury with some bandages. Rose was on the other side of the room, sitting in front of a computer to check for Aile’s condition. A piece of paper was printed out and Rose took the paper before giving it to the older nurse who took it with a smile.

Ashe and Grey came into the room and were greeted by the older nurse, “Ah, there you two are.”

“Is she going to be okay?” Ashe asked worriedly before she turned to her best friend lying on the bed.

“Don’t worry, she’s okay,” Muguet replied with a smile, “Thanks to you two, she made it back in time,” Muguet turned to the paper in her hand as the Hunters approached Aile’s bed before the nurse’s eyes grew wide, “Oh, my…”

“What? Is there something else we need to worry about?” Ashe turned to the nurse, who motioned the Hunters to come over.

The two Hunters went to Muguet’s sides and looked at the paper before their eyes grew wide in shock, “WHAT!?”

“I know it’s a little hard to believe, but that’s what happened,” Muguet let out a sigh before smiling, “You two must be tired as well, so why don’t you take a rest here in the base and hang out around here?”

“Yes, we will,” Grey nodded, still in shock, before he left the room along with Ashe.

A few hours had passed since the Hunters returned with the injured Aile and the color of the sky was slowly changing from orange to dark blue as it was almost night time. Muguet took a look at Aile, who was still sleeping on the bed before putting the paper into the pocket inside her white nurse coat. Just as she was about to walk towards the door, she heard that Aile had stirred on the bed and turned around to see Aile with her eyes half open.

“Where…?” Aile asked weakly as Muguet came over to her.

“The medic wing in the Guardian Base,” Muguet replied with a smile, “Are you feeling okay, Aile?”

“I guess…” Aile slowly sat up on the bed and saw the bandage on her stomach before she frowned, “Vent…”

“I know it’s going to be hard to raise a child if you don’t have your husband around,” Muguet let out a sad sigh, getting Aile’s attention.

“Raise a child? What do you mean, Muguet?” Aile asked in confusion before she saw the smile on the nurse’s face, which made her even confused, “H-Have you found out a method for Vent and I to have a child?”

“Too bad, but that method isn’t needed anymore,” Muguet turned to Aile with a smile, “Congratulations, Aile… You and Vent are going to be parents!”

“E-Eh!?” A faint blush appeared on her face before she looked down at her bandaged stomach, “S-So you’re saying that… I’m pregnant? With Vent’s and my baby?”

“Yes, and it’s quite a surprise that even with your injury, the baby miraculously survived!” Muguet nodded and smiled.

“That’s good to hear…” Aile let out a small smile and rubbed her stomach before her smile turned into a frown, “But too bad the baby didn’t come at the right time… I wish that Vent was here to hear this…”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure your Hunter friends will bring him back to you,” Muguet replied calmly before the smile returned to Aile’s face as she nodded.

As Muguet was going to leave the room, Ashe came into the room and was happy to see that Aile was awake, “Hey! You’re finally awake!” Ashe came over to Aile’s bed, “Did you get the news? You know, about yours and Vent’s family?”

Aile nodded and smiled, “I did, and I’m happy to know that Vent and I are going to be parents!”

Aile slowly got off from her bed, much to Ashe’s surprise, “Wait, you’re not supposed to be off the bed, are you?”

“She’s going to be okay,” The two turned to Muguet, “She only lost consciousness because of the amount of blood coming out from her body at once, but she’ll be fine by now.”

“Thanks Muguet, I’ll go with Ashe now,” Aile said before she and Ashe got out of the room and noticed that she was on her own, “Hey, where’s Grey?”

Ashe let out a sigh, “Can you guess? It’s pretty easy, you know…”

Aile giggled before replying, “He’s with Pandora, right?”

Ashe nodded, “And he’s hardly ever left her side,” Ashe let out a sad sigh, “And I can’t stop thinking how worried he might be after seeing Prometheus and Pandora coming back here with headaches. They said that they met a man with long blonde hair with a visor and a green saber I think…”

“It’s Giro,” Ashe turned to Aile, who had a serious look on her face, “There’s no mistaking it.”

The expression on Ashe’s face turned into a serious one as well, “Then Thomas must be on the move. We’ve got to let Prairie know about this.”

The two females headed down towards the command center and found a worried Grey along with Prairie inside. Prairie rose from her seat as she saw the two came in and turned to Aile with a worried look on her face, “Aile, are you feeling okay?”

Aile smiled at the Guardian commander, “I’m okay, Prairie. In fact, I feel better than ever.”

“Prairie, we’ve got an important problem right now,” Ashe turned to Prairie with a serious look, “I think Thomas is on the move again.”

Prairie nodded, “Yes, I’ve heard the details from Grey,” Prairie and the other two females turned to Grey, who listened through the whole conversation but stayed silent, “Grey, are you feeling okay? You haven’t said anything since you told me about what happened to Prometheus and Pandora.”

“Huh?” Grey noticed the stares from the others in the room, “I-I’m okay, please continue.”

Prairie nodded before turning back to the two, “Alright, but we need to clear something up before we can deal with Thomas,” Prairie turned to Aile, “Aile, I’m afraid that I have to pull you out from the fight because of your pregnancy, and possibly hide you away as well to avoid Thomas from using you against Vent. Is that okay?”

Aile nodded, “I’m okay, but… what about Vent? I don’t think that he’s going to stay still after knowing that I’m not around once he returns to normal, and most importantly…” Aile put a hand on her stomach, “Most importantly, I’m not sure if I can be away from him… especially that I’m carrying his child with me…”

“I have an idea!” Ashe spoke up, getting the attention from the others in the room, “Why don’t you stay in the Hunter Camp?”

“Are you stupid or something!?” Grey asked angrily, much to the others’ surprise, “Thomas is a former Sage Trinity member, and he knows the location of the Hunter Camp!”

“Yes, but aren’t you forgetting something?” Ashe turned to Grey, who was looking at her in confusion, “Seriously, where do you think our bedroom is?”

“The underground… wait! That’s it!” Grey finally noticed and turned to Prairie, “We can hide Aile in the underground bedrooms! No one but the Hunters or the allies of the Hunters can access that place!”

“That’s a good idea!” Prairie nodded and smiled, “Alright, Aile, we need you to stay in the Hunter Camp and don’t tell anyone other than the Hunters there that you’re staying there.”

Aile nodded hesitantly, “Okay…”

“We’re not going to let you down!” Ashe and Grey said in unison as they saluted at Prairie before they all left for the camp.


	13. Vent’s Retrieval

A week had passed since Vent’s movement was detected. Mavericks were still attacking the city, but their numbers had slowly decreased. The Reploid siblings, Prometheus and Pandora, had already recovered from their strange headaches and were still staying in the Guardian Base. The Hunters were staying in the Hunter Camp when they got a transmission from Prairie.

“What!?” Grey asked as he had his hand on the communicator on his ear, “Alright, we’re on our way.”

_“Wait!”_ Prairie’s voice was heard from Grey’s communicator, _“Prometheus and Pandora wanted to come with you two, so I’m going to send them over to the Hunter Camp.”_

“Okay,” Grey ended the transmission and went out of his bedroom, where he slept on his own, before he went out of the 00 building to find Ashe already waiting outside.

“Come on, I’ve already heard about the details from those two siblings,” Ashe went on ahead with Grey following her as they met up with the Reploid siblings in the 04 building before they teleported to the Tower of Verdure.

The four teleported to the top floor of the tower into the room where some vines were hanging. They looked around the room, but found that the room was completely empty. Ashe let out a sigh before turning to the Reploid siblings, “Are you sure that Prairie told you Vent would be here?”

“Yes,” Prometheus replied with a nod, “The signal was coming from around this tower.”

Grey noticed that two people suddenly teleported into the room and stood in front of them with both having their sabers ready, “Vent! Giro!”

“Looks like the Guardians still have some people to be sent looking for you, Vent,” Giro turned to Vent, who stayed silent.

“What are you doing here?” Ashe asked.

“What are we doing here?” Giro asked back before he stretched out his arm towards the Reploid siblings behind the Hunters, “This is what we’re doing!”

Giro’s stretched hand suddenly glowed in purple color before purple-colored thunder struck down on Prometheus and Pandora. The Reploid siblings yelled in pain before they collapsed on the floor, fainted. The Hunters saw as the siblings lost consciousness and turned back to Giro, who had a smile on his face as he drew back his stretched arm.

“It turns out that those two doesn’t have any good information about Weil,” Giro spoke up, getting confused looks from the Hunters, “You don’t get it, do you? Lord Thomas rebuilt those two using the remains of Weil’s data in order to get their memories, but I guess it’s a waste of time.”

“W-Wait, so Thomas rebuilt those two?” Grey asked as he pointed at the collapsed siblings behind him, “And now you’re just going to destroy them after knowing that they don’t know anything useful to you!?”

“I’m not ordered to destroy those two,” Giro drew his saber back, “I’m simply unlocking their useless memories and power. We don’t need them anymore because it’s only a matter of time before Lord Thomas can finally reset this world in order to make the ideal world for us,” Giro turned away from the Hunters, “Vent, I’m leaving these two Hunters to you. Destroy those two siblings if you must. We have no use for them anymore.”

As Giro teleported away, Ashe ran over to his place angrily, “You coward! Are you just going to run every time you see us!?”

“Ashe! Behind you!” Grey warned his partner, who quickly pulled out her buster guns to block Vent’s incoming saber. Grey released a charged shot, knocking Vent against the wall before turning back to Ashe, “We have to fight him again! We’ll see if we can get him back to normal!”

“Right!” Ashe nodded in agreement before she distanced herself from Vent as he had got back to his feet.

Ashe released a reflect laser followed by a Homing Shot, giving Grey the chance to take the Reploid siblings away from the battle area. Vent took the attacks head on, but barely damaged by them as he had charged in at Ashe with his purple saber in front of him. Ashe sidestepped to dodge the attack and released a Homing Shot as he passed by, knocking him a little.

Grey released a charged shot at Vent, who used his saber to cut through the shot and slashed Grey across his chest. Grey was knocked back to the wall next to the unconscious Reploid siblings, but managed to get back to his feet slowly and released another charged shot to knock Vent back. Ashe followed up the attack with her reflect laser, making Vent turn her way as he released a few charged shots at her.

Ashe dodged the attack easily, but didn’t expect that Vent had charged at her again with his saber in front of him. Ashe barely dodged it as she got hit on her arm, but it gave her the chance to land a Homing Shot on him. Vent was knocked away from her and Grey released his Giga Crush attack as Vent was about to get back to his feet.

Ashe distanced herself away from Vent as she jumped to Grey’s side and saw that Vent had got back to his feet with his back turned to them and he was holding his head, “What’s he doing now…?”

“S… Stop… it…” Vent closed his eyes shut as he slammed his body to the wall, “I… don’t want… to hurt… them…”

“I think he’s almost back to his old self! He’s fighting it!” Grey replied as he and Ashe watched Vent trying to get back to normal.

Vent opened his eyes and the red color in his eyes were slowly turning to his normal green color, but suddenly turned back to red before Vent pulled out his purple saber and charged at the Hunters. Ashe and Grey had moved out of the way, but Vent’s attack stopped in the middle as he dropped his saber and fell to his knees before he started clutching his head once more.

“No…more…” Vent shakily turned to the Hunters with his eyes still red in color, “S… Shoot… me… quick…” Ashe was about to point her buster gun at Vent when he suddenly let out a pained yell before he turned back to the Hunters, “Quick… I’m… holding… mind control…”

Ashe took a deep breath as she aimed her buster gun at Vent once more before closing her eyes, “Sorry, Vent…”

Ashe released her reflect laser, which hit Vent on his chest before he was knocked down on the ground. The dark red armor covering his body disappeared, leaving Vent as he transformed back to his human form. The brown Biometal, Model O, was in Vent’s left hand as Model X was in Vent’s right hand.

“Nice… job…” Vent let out a weak laugh before he lost consciousness.

“Alright, we’ve got Vent back now,” Grey spoke up before he walked over to the Reploid siblings, “Now we only need to take him along with Prometheus and Pandora back to the Guardian Base.”

“Okay, I’ll tell Prairie now,” Ashe said as she turned to Grey before she reached the communicator on her ear, “Prairie, guess who’s back in the team!”

_“Ashe, have you and Grey retrieved Vent back?”_ Prairie asked in surprise.

“You are correct, Miss!” Ashe replied jokingly before turning to Vent, “But I think this big guy needs some good rest!”

_“Thank goodness…”_ Prairie sighed in relief, _“Okay, I’ll transfer you and the others back to the Guardian Base.”_

“Thanks!” Ashe replied before she ended the communication and the five of them were teleported out of the area in a flash of white light.


	14. Returning Memories

Two days had passed since Ashe and Grey brought Vent back to the Guardian Base. The brown-haired Guardian quickly recovered in those two days and was ready to go on more missions, but decided to stay as he saw that his wife was nowhere to be seen in the base. Vent made his way to the command center to see the commander of Guardians with a worried look on his face.

“Prairie! I can’t find Aile anywhere in the base!” Vent immediately said as he entered the command center, “Where is she now?!”

“Calm down, Vent,” Prairie said as she turned her chair around to see Vent, “You don’t have to worry about her. She’s fine and she’s in a safe place right now.”

“And where is that safe place right now?!” Vent asked, starting to get annoyed.

Prairie paused for a moment as she looked at Vent before she turned away with a frown on her face, “I’m sorry Vent, but I can’t tell you where she is now. It’s for both of your sakes.”

“We have a problem here, Commander!” Grey suddenly barged into the room, surprising Vent and Prairie.

“Grey! What brings you here?” Prairie asked in confusion before she noticed the worried look on the Reploid’s face, "What seems to be the problem?"

“It’s Pandora,” Grey turned his head to the door, “She and Prometheus have locked themselves in their room! They haven’t done that before!”

“I understand,” Prairie nodded and rose from her seat, “Come with us, Vent. We need to check up on the siblings and find out if there’s anything wrong with them.”

“Alright…” Vent sighed in defeat before he followed Grey and Prairie out of the room, “I guess I’ll come…”

Vent, Grey, and Prairie took the elevator to the lower floor and walked the siblings’ bedroom, which was the room nearest to the elevator. Prairie knocked on the door, but silence was the only thing she got before Grey took her place and knocked on the door. A faint angry growl was heard coming from inside the bedroom before it slid open to reveal Prometheus holding his scythe and had his old armor and helmet.

“What are you doing bothering us again, Grey!?” Prometheus asked angrily as he glared at Grey, “Don’t even think about flirting with my sister again!”

“W-What!?” Grey asked as a blush appeared on his face before the door in front of them closed back, “Hey! Open up, Prometheus! We need to talk to you and Pandora!”

“Get lost, Grey!” Prometheus’ angry yell was heard before Grey let out a sigh.

Vent put a hand on Grey’s shoulder, “Welcome to my world, buddy…”

“That Prometheus… he didn’t have his armor last time, did he?” Prairie asked as she looked at the door one more time before turning to the two Chosen Ones, “Could it be… they have regained their memories back?”

“That’ll be my guess as well,” Vent turned to Grey, “We can’t do anything with them if they refused to cooperate like this. We need to wait until it’s lunch before we can ask them what we wanted to know.”

“Why lunch?” Grey turned to Vent with a confused look on his face, “Don’t tell me that you want to eat before you question those two.”

“W-Well, that’s partially the reason,” Vent rubbed the back of his neck nervously, “But that’s not the main reason. They might only come out during breakfast, lunch, or dinner, so I think today’s lunchtime should be a good time to do it.”

“Alright, but you two might need to hurry,” Prairie started as she got the attention from the two Chosen Ones, “Lunchtime is only in a few minutes, so I suggest that you two head over to the cafeteria now.”

“Right,” Vent nodded before turning to Grey, “Come on!”

Vent and Grey headed towards the cafeteria, finding that the other Guardians were already there to wait for the lunch to be served. The two leaned on the wall next to the doors while ignoring the fact that the other Guardians were watching them. As Vent had expected, the Reploid siblings came into the cafeteria as the menu was about to be served.

Without the siblings’ knowledge, Vent pinned Prometheus down while Grey grabbed Pandora. Prometheus was about to pull out his scythe, but Vent had held his hands tightly and prevented him from pulling out his scythe, “Hey! What’s the big idea!?”

“Grey… release me…” Pandora resisted Grey’s grip, but he kept holding her hands tightly.

“Sorry, but not until you and Prometheus tell us what’s happening!” Grey replied, getting a glare from Prometheus.

“Seriously!? Is that the only thing you want!?” Prometheus asked angrily, “We’re not telling you anything after the way we’re treated just now!”

“Vent! I think we should let them go right now!” Grey turned to Vent, before the two Chosen Ones released the Reploid siblings.

“Whose idea is this to strike us like that!?” Prometheus asked angrily as he turned to the Chosen Ones.

Vent let out a sigh, “Sorry, but judging by how you kicked us away from your door, you’re going to be hard to work with…”

“Hmph!” Prometheus put his scythe away and folded his arms angrily, “Sorry, but I’m not going to say anything to you!” Prometheus turned to Pandora, “Pandora! You do what you want. Tell them, or not tell them. I don’t care anymore!”

Prometheus turned away and left as Grey glared at him angrily, “What’s his problem anyway!?”

“Grey…” Pandora spoke up in a whisper, but got the attention from Grey, “I will tell you… that the red Mega Man gave them back…”

“What did Boss give to you?” Vent asked impatiently.

“Our memories…” Pandora spread out her armored arms, “Our power… he gave them back to us…”

“Wait, so then…” Grey took a step closer to Pandora, “That thunder which struck you and Prometheus… that was your locked memories?” Pandora replied with a silent nod before she walked away, “W-Wait!”

“Grey…” Pandora whispered as she stopped walking, “We’re not meant… to work together…”

“I… I see…” Grey let out a sigh before he saw Pandora walking away from him and Vent.

Vent put a hand on his shoulder as he smiled at the younger Chosen One, “Cheer up, now… Let’s just get something to eat.”

“Okay…”


	15. Surprise Transmission

Two months had passed since Prometheus and Pandora regained their power and memories. The Mavericks sent by Thomas to attack had come to the city each day, keeping Vent and the two Hunters busy. Vent had just returned from his solo mission in the city and was about to head to the command center to report when he saw Grey walking out from the elevator.

“Grey! What are you doing here?” Vent asked the Reploid, who snapped out from his thoughts.

“Huh? Oh…” Grey lowered his head, “I was just… visiting…” Grey raised his head with a frown on his face, “Those two don’t come out much now, huh?”

Vent nodded in reply, “Yeah, they only came out for breakfast this morning before they went back to their room,” Vent noticed that Grey was on his own, “Hey, are you here on your own today?”

“Yeah…” Grey walked towards the door leading to the transerver room, “Ashe’s back in the camp. I’m here to visit on my own today,” Grey turned back to Vent, “I’m going back to the camp now. I guess I’ll see you around…”

“Okay…” Vent saw as the male Hunter walked slowly into the transerver room before letting a sad smile, “He must be thinking about Pandora…” Vent turned to the elevator and let out a sad sigh, _‘No one has ever told me where Aile is for the past two months… I wonder if she’s really okay…’_

Vent walked into the command center and was greeted by Prairie, who stood up from her seat and smiled at him, “Welcome back, Vent. Good job as always.”

“Thanks…” Vent replied sadly before letting out a sigh, “Prairie, can I at least know where Aile is?”

The smile on the commander’s face disappeared as she let out a sigh, “I’m sorry Vent, but you had just been from Thomas’ side and I’m afraid that he might still put some tracking device on you.”

“I don’t recall Thomas putting some kind of weird device on me!” Vent replied angrily, “Prairie, tell me where she is already! Aile is my wife, and I’m her husband!” Vent curled his hands into fists angrily before he soon relaxed them with a loud sigh and turned to Prairie calmly, “If I could, then at least… let me hear her voice… Let me hear from Aile herself that she’s okay…”

“Vent…” Prairie looked at Vent, who looked both worried and upset, before nodding, “Alright, just a moment,” Prairie turned her chair away from Vent as she started typing on her computer before she turned back to Vent, “You can contact Aile with your communicator for now. I’ve put up a safe connection for you to talk to her.”

A smile slowly made its way to Vent’s face, “Thanks… Prairie…” Vent turned away from the commander before he ran out of the command center and headed to his and Aile’s bedroom.

Meanwhile in the Hunter Camp, Aile was lying down on her bed, which was the lower bunk of the bunk bed. A few empty glasses were on the bedside table while her bag containing her clothes and daily needs were under the bed. The female silver-haired Hunter came into the room, smiling, as she carried a glass of milk in her hand.

“Here, I’ve brought you some more milk,” Ashe said before she put the glass on the bedside table before taking the empty glasses in her hands, “Do you need anything else?”

“I don’t think I need anything else,” Aile sat up on the bed and let out a laugh as she saw the empty glasses in Ashe’s hands, “If you want to treat me like a queen, you need to give me things other than those glasses of milk.”

“Sorry,” Ashe laughed along, “I don’t know about a pregnant woman’s daily needs other than milk. There aren’t any pregnant Hunters, so I don’t have any references here.”

“It’s okay, thanks anyway,” Ashe left the room with a smile before she turned to the glass of milk on the bedside table and let out a sigh, “And that’ll be the thirtieth glass of milk today…” Aile lied down on the bed once more before she ran a hand on the small bump on her stomach, “I wonder how Vent’s doing… He must’ve been very worried after he found that I’m missing just after he had recovered from using that Model O…”

_“Aile… Aile, can you hear me?”_ Vent’s voice was heard suddenly from Aile’s communicator before she sat up in surprise.

“Vent? Is that you? Is that really you?” A smile appeared on Aile’s face, “It’s been ages since I last heard your voices…”

Vent laughed from the other side, _“Same here…”_ There was a short pause before Vent continued, _“I miss you, Aile…”_

The smile on Aile’s face turned into a sad one, “I miss you too, Vent… so much…” A single tear dropped from her face as she sniffed.

_“Aile, what’s wrong?”_ Vent’s panicked voice was heard, _“Why are you crying? A-Are you hurt?”_

“No, I’m okay…” Aile wiped her tears away, “I feel perfectly fine… I’m just… I’m just happy to hear your voice again…”

_“That’s good to hear then…”_ Vent let out a sigh in relief, _“So, where are you now? Can I see you?”_ Vent waited for a reply, but Aile stayed silent while she had her hand on her growing stomach, _“Aile? Are you there?”_

“Sorry, Vent… But I really can’t tell you…” Aile took a deep breath before continuing, “C-Can I ask you a question?”

_“Sure, I guess…”_ Aile could hear that Vent had let out a depressed sigh, _“What is it that you wanna ask?”_

“Well…” Aile turned to the hand she had over her stomach, “I was wonder about something… If, and only if we ever get the news that we’re going to have a baby around this time of crisis, is that… okay with you? I know that you want a child so badly, but I’m just wondering about this…”

“That’s just it?” Vent asked before he paused for a moment to think, _“I guess… I’m not too okay with that, though…”_

“Oh…” Aile replied with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

_“What is it? You’re not saying that you’re pregnant, are you?”_ Vent asked as he noticed Aile’s disappointed tone.

“N-No! I’m just…” Aile closed her eyes and let out a sigh, “It just crossed my mind just then…” Aile reopened her eyes and turned her head back to her stomach, _‘I think it’s better that he doesn’t know about this yet… not until Thomas is defeated…’_

_“Alright then…”_ Vent let out another sigh, _“I’m going to take a break now. I just hope that I get to see you soon. I love you, Aile…”_

A sad smile came across Aile’s face, “I love you too, Vent…” Aile ended the communication before she let out a loud sigh and lied down on the bed, _‘Sorry Vent, but I can’t tell you about our baby… I don’t want you to leave me like this…’_

Aile closed her eyes with one of her hands sitting on her stomach as she drifted off to sleep.


	16. The Great Four

The next morning came, and the male brown-haired Guardian was woken up by the call through the intercom, much to his annoyance. Vent got up from his bed lazily before getting ready and headed out to the command center as he was called to. The two Hunters, Ashe and Grey, were already in the command center in their Model A forms along with Prairie in the room.

“Vent!” Prairie noticed the incoming Guardian, “We’ve detected Thomas’ movement again. There are four Biometal signals coming from the ocean where Ouroboros fell years ago.”

“Ouroboros?” Vent asked, getting nods from the others in the room, “But why would Thomas want anything to do with the Ouroboros? The last time we checked that place, its remains can’t be rebuilt anymore!”

“That’s what we need to find out,” Prairie turned to the Hunters, “Could you get Prometheus and Pandora to work with us?”

Grey only let out a sad sigh, leaving Ashe to answer the commander, “Nope, they’re locking themselves in their bedroom. Again.”

“I see,” Prairie nodded in understanding, “I’m counting on you three to stop Thomas from taking that Ouroboros no matter what it is he wants from it.”

“Roger!” Vent nodded and transformed into his Model ZX form before the Hunters turned to him and nodded.

The three Chosen Ones headed towards the transerver room before teleporting to the Ouroboros’ crash site. The four missing Mega Men, Aeolus, Atlas, Thetis, and Siarnaq were all standing in front of the remains of Ouroboros with their backs turned to the three other Chosen Ones. The four noticed as Vent and the Hunters approached them and pulled out their weapons.

“What do you want with that thing?!” Ashe asked angrily before pulling out her buster guns and pointed them at the four, “What is Thomas planning to do with it?!”

“It’s none of your pitiful concern,” Aeolus replied coldly before drawing the end of his pink sabers together, “You have no right to know.”

“Yes, we do! This is our world we’re living in, and it’s also yours as well!” Vent argued as he pulled out his green ZX saber.

“This world is a world filled with weak people. That’s why this world isn’t ours,” Atlas replied, getting angry growls from the three.

“That’s right,” Thetis let out an evil smile before he put his staff on his side, “You guys are the pollutant of this world, and I don’t live in polluted worlds!”

“Will you guys snap out of this whole madness!?” Grey asked angrily, “Just like how Albert used you, Thomas has been using you as well! He’s trying to make you four do the dirty work for him while he gets to destroy this world and make a new world for his own!”

“THOMAS IS AN HONORED MAN,” Siarnaq spoke up with his robotic voice, “HE HAD PROMISED THE IDEAL WORLD FOR ALL OF US.”

“These guys just don’t get it, do they?!” Ashe asked in irritation, “How can they just take a bunch of nonsense into their heads while leaving the truth passing by?!”

“Ugh, forget it! They’re not going to listen to whatever we’re saying!” Vent said angrily, “We have to take them down and force the truth into their heads!”

Vent charged ahead with his green saber in front of him, only to be blocked by Aeolus’ pink sabers before Atlas appeared beside him and knocked him away. Grey went to Vent’s side and caught him before he fell to the ground, not noticing that Thetis had swum behind them. Ashe released her reflect laser and knocked Thetis away, only to be hit by Siarnaq’s raining kunai.

Vent pulled out his buster in his free hand and began shooting normal buster shots at Siarnaq, but Thetis’ ice towers had blocked his shots completely and bounced them back to him. Vent dashed away from the shots, but was knocked to the ground with Atlas’ buster gun. Grey was about to release his charged shot at Atlas, but Aeolus’ ball of electricity had paralyzed him and cancelled his attack.

Ashe was surrounded by Siarnaq’s clones, but her Homing Shots had cleared the clones away to see that the real body was nowhere to be found. A shuriken came from behind her, but she managed to dodge the attack and the shuriken only tore the side of her helmet a little. Siarnaq appeared behind Ashe, but Vent’s saber had hit Siarnaq just as he was about to attack with the kunai in his hand.

Grey slowly recovered from his paralysis before he aimed his charged shot at Thetis, but the Ice Mega Men had swum away to dodge the attack. Ice dragons suddenly came out from Grey’s feet, much to the Reploid’s surprise, and almost froze his body completely as Ashe’s Homing Shots had destroyed some of the ice dragons’ bodies and shattered them into small ice spikes.

The ice spikes went straight towards the Hunters, but Vent’s charged shot destroyed the spikes before they made in contact with the Hunters. The three regrouped and formed a small circle as the other four Mega Men had them surrounded with their weapons ready. The Hunters released their rapid Giga Crush attacks, which didn’t damage the four that much.

“This is bad… They’re much stronger than the last time we fought them!” Grey spoke up as he looked at the four Mega Men.

“Not to mention that we lost pretty badly that time too…” Ashe added.

“We’re not too outnumbered, but we’re definitely too overpowered!” Vent commented as his grip on his saber got tighter, _‘Darn it… I can’t use Model OX here or I’ll take Thomas’ side again…’_

_“Stop this fight!”_

“Huh?” Vent lowered his saber before he looked around in confusion, “What was that?”

“What do you mean by that?” Grey asked as he noticed the confusion on the Guardian’s face.

_‘I think… I heard Model X’s voice just now…’_ Vent thought before he looked at the four Mega Men in front of him as they closed in on him and the Hunters, _‘But his consciousness should be gone after I used the special overdrive system to take down Weil…’_

_“Four Guardians of Neo Arcadia, I command you to stop this fight!”_

The four Mega Men suddenly fell to their knees and were all wincing in pain, much to the three’s surprise. The four glowed for a moment before they all transformed back, leaving their Biometals in their hands before they fell to the ground. The three paused for a bit as they watched them to be motionless on the ground before they ran over to them and checked their pulses.

“There’s still alive,” Vent said as he held on to Aeolus before turning to the Hunters, “I don’t know why, but I think Model X had something to do with this.”

_“Whatever has happened, let it happen,”_ A familiar voice was suddenly heard in the three’s communicator.

“Thomas!” Grey recognized the voice, “What are you planning now?! Your loyal Mega Men have just fallen!”

Thomas let out an evil laugh, _“It doesn’t matter anymore if they can’t fight anymore. They were merely just pawns in my grand plan.”_

The remains of Ouroboros glowed for a moment before they disappeared from the site as Vent ran over to it, “No! The Ouroboros!”

Thomas let out another evil laugh, _“You can have those so-called Guardians back. I have no use for them anymore.”_

Thomas cut the connection and left Vent in anger with the other Chosen Ones. Grey laid Thetis and Siarnaq on the ground before he walked over to Vent, “Come on, let’s just go back and have a rest today. There’s nothing else we can do here.”

“I guess…” Vent slowly turned to him with a frown on his face.

“Hey, why don’t you just take a break in the Hunter Camp?” Ashe suggested before she put Atlas down on the ground and walked over to the two Chosen Ones.

Vent eyed the four unconscious Chosen Ones before turning back to the Hunters, “Maybe tomorrow. I need to get those four back to the base.”

The Hunters nodded before Vent contacted Prairie and the seven of them were teleported out of the area in a flash of white light.


	17. The Big Secret

The next morning came and Vent got out of his door with a yawn before going to the medic wing. The other four Chosen Ones were still resting in the medic wing as they were still recovering. After a short visit in the medic wing, Vent went out of the room and headed to the transerver room, teleporting to the Hunter Camp as Ashe suggested the day before.

Vent got out of the 04 building and looked around the camp, which was lively with the passing Hunters. Vent waved at the familiar Hunter who passed by before the Hunter came over to him with a smile, “Vent! Long time no see!”

“Hi there, Richard!” Vent greeted the Hunter with a smile, “Have you seen Grey around?”

“Grey? I think he went out of the camp early this morning,” The Hunter, Richard, saw as Vent let out a disappointed sigh, “But I think I saw Ashe going to the 01 building café not too long ago.”

“Ashe? Nah, I don’t think I want to see that mischievous girl for a while,” Vent let out a laugh, “But thanks for the info anyway,” Vent waved at Richard as he walked away from the Hunter and stopped in front of the 01 building’s door, “If Ashe is in this café, then I should… go to the underground café!” Vent turned away from the door and headed towards the 00 building instead.

He went into the underground café, which was Nick’s café, and saw that the place was packed with the Hunters he wasn’t familiar with until a blur of silver color caught his eye. He turned to the direction where he saw the color of silver and saw that Ashe was getting up from a table with the other Hunters.

Ashe turned around and was surprised to see the brown-haired Guardian, “Vent! What are you doing here in this café? I thought that I’ve paid Richard to lie to you that I’m in Jim’s café!”

Vent let out a sigh, “You’re the same as always, aren’t you?”

Ashe let out a chuckle, “Yeah, but enjoy your stay here anyway!”

“Yeah, thanks…” Vent let out a sigh as Ashe went to hang out with the Hunters on the other tables while Vent walked over to the bar section and sat on the first empty seat he saw, “Hey Nick, can you give me…” Vent turned around to see Nick, but stopped when he saw the familiar person sitting next to him, “A-Aile!?”

Aile turned around and was surprised to see her husband sitting next to her, “Vent? Why are you here?”

“Aile, what are you doing out of the bedroom?” Ashe asked as she came over to the female brown-haired Guardian.

Aile let out a sigh, “Ashe, there’s no way I’m going to stay in that room for the whole day again! It’s really boring in there!”

“Uh… Aile?” Vent spoke up, eyeing the small bump on Aile’s stomach and got the attention from the two females, “Have you been eating an all-you-can-eat buffet lately?”

“No, that’s not it…” Aile faked a smile as she felt a bit irritated by Vent’s question, _‘What makes him think that I’ve been eating a lot?!’_

Ashe stared at Vent in disbelief, _‘Is he stupid or what?’_ Ashe let out a sigh before she spoke up, “I’ll let you know that she’s actually-”

“No! Don’t spill it, Ashe!” Aile covered the Hunter’s mouth with her hand in panic.

Ashe removed Aile’s hand from over her mouth before turning to her, “Then why don’t you tell him yourself now?”

“Tell me what?” Vent asked in confusion, “Are you two hiding something from me?”

Aile let out a sigh before she got off from her seat, “Come with me, Vent. There’s something I need to tell you privately,” Aile took Vent's hand before they both went out of the café.

The two Guardians walked to the bedroom area and stopped in front of a door as Aile pulled out her keys. Vent looked around and noticed the familiar view, “Hey, isn’t this the room we shared during our stay in the camp those years ago?”

Aile nodded in reply before the door slid open and Aile took Vent’s hand once more before turning to face him, “Come, I’ll tell you in the room.”

Vent followed Aile as they stepped into the room and Aile sat on the lower bunk of the bed before patting the spot next to her as she motioned for him to sit. There was a long silence between them as Aile lowered her head and put her hands together on her lap nervously. Vent watched Aile in silence, not wanting to force her to speak when she didn’t want to.

“Actually… Ashe has been helping me here as my roommate,” Aile started before her hands reached for Vent’s, “And there’s a reason for that…”

“And that reason is…?” Vent asked impatiently as Aile’s grip on his hands got tighter for a moment.

“It has something to do with my question two days ago, but I know that you deserve to know about the truth so I guess here goes nothing…” Aile put one of Vent’s hands over her stomach before she put both of her hands over it and took a deep breath before looking at Vent straight in the eyes, “Vent, I’m… pregnant…”

Vent's eyes grew wide in surprise before he suddenly got up from the bed, “W-What!?”

“I know, and I’m sorry…” Aile let out a sad sigh, “I-I know that you’re not going to be okay with this, but…” Aile covered her face with both of her hands as tears started falling from her eyes, “Please… please don’t leave me… not when I’m like this…”

“Whoa! And who gave you the idea that I’m going to leave you?” Vent approached Aile and sat beside her before giving her a hug, “I’m not leaving you! Not ever…”

“But you said…!” Aile argued between her sniffles, but Vent broke the hug and put a finger on her lips.

“I know that I’m not too okay with having a child at this time, but it doesn’t mean that I’m going to leave you alone to take care of our baby when I know I have one,” Vent planted a kiss on Aile’s forehead as she started to calm down, “I’m happy knowing that you’re going to be the mother of my baby.”

“Oh, Vent…” Aile wiped her tears away before wrapping her arms around Vent’s neck and kissed him on the lips, “Thank you…”

“My pleasure…” Vent smiled at Aile before he put a hand on Aile’s stomach, “You’ve made me the happiest man in the world…” Vent put his other arm around Aile’s waist and pulled her closer to him, “So, how old is the baby?”

Aile put a hand on Vent’s, which was sitting on her stomach, “Anna is the nurse who examined me here, and she said that the baby is about two months and a half.”

“Two months… and a half…” The smile on Vent’s face disappeared, “That’s means that you’re already pregnant when I hurt you with that Model OX…”

“That scar on my stomach… It could endanger the baby’s life, but…” Aile looked up at Vent with a smile, “The baby miraculously survived…” Aile noticed the sad frown on her husband’s face and put a hand on his cheek before turning his head to her, “What’s done is done, but it’s a miracle that our baby managed to pull through…”

“I… guess…” The smile slowly returned to Vent’s face.

“And one more thing,” Aile took both of Vent’s hands in hers before putting them closer to her cheek, “Don’t use Model OX again, unless your emotions are in control.”

“My emotions… alright…” Vent nodded and smiled at Aile, who let out a soft yawn.

“I think I feel a little bit tired after all that crying…” Aile leaned on Vent’s shoulder, “Sorry that I have to stay here away from you while Thomas is still around…”

“It’s alright, I’ll just consider it as a punishment for putting you and the baby in danger,” Vent put a hand behind Aile’s neck as he lied her down on the bed, “Take a rest if you’re really that tired.”

Aile gave him a tired nod, but quickly grabbed Vent’s hand as he was about to get up from the bed, “Wait! Can you… accompany me here? Maybe until Ashe comes back…”

“Okay, if that’s what you want,” Vent sat on the ground beside the bed while holding her right hand as she had her left on her stomach.

Aile slowly drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face as Vent watched over her while playing with the wedding ring on her finger. He leaned on the bed and put his head on it before he slowly drifted to sleep as well. A few hours had passed and Ashe had come back into the room with a tray of food in her hands before she put it down on the bedside table and woke Vent up by shaking his shoulder.

“Vent, wake up!” Ashe whispered as the male Guardian slowly got up and opened his eyes before turning to the Hunter, “I’ll take it from here. You go and get something to eat for lunch in the café before you go back to the base.”

“Okay…” Vent let go of Aile’s hand and stretched his arms before turning to Ashe with a smile, “Take care of her for me, okay?”

“No problem!” Ashe whispered back before Vent walked out of the room quietly, not wanting to wake his wife up accidentally.


	18. Resetting the World

“Vent! Wake up! I have something important to show you!” Prairie said as she knocked on Vent’s door, “Thomas has made it to the final phase of his plan!”

Vent soon opened the door, fully dressed before he followed Prairie back to the command center. A big pop up screen was above Prairie’s desk with Thomas’ face on it, “Thomas! What exactly are you planning to do with the world!?”

“Thomas has hacked into our base’s system for this live feed,” Prairie told the brown-haired Guardian before they both turned to the screen.

_“Greetings, humans and Reploids alike!”_ Thomas started with an evil smile on his face as he spread out his arms, _“Today I, Master Thomas, declare the beginning of the new world! The ideal world!”_ The screen changed into a few of an object floating in space, _“Meet Ragnarok II, the satellite I’ve built from the remains of the evil Ouroboros, to bring you all to the ideal world!”_

“That’s another Ragnarok…” Prairie went over to her desk before typing a few things and a smaller pop up screen appeared beside the one with Ragnarok, “That’s Ragnarok II, built with same specifications as the Ragnarok built by Weil… Is the history going to repeat itself?”

“As if I’m going to let him!” Vent turned to Prairie, “Prairie, how is the condition of those four Chosen Ones? And what about those siblings? Can they cooperate with us?”

“Aeolus and the others have woken up, but they’re not in the condition to fight,” Prairie lowered her head, “And Prometheus and Pandora… They had left the base last night…”

“Darn it! Are they siding with Thomas now!?” Vent asked angrily and turned to the screen before turning back to Prairie, “Prairie, can you pinpoint a location in that thing for me to go to?”

“I’ll try, just give me a moment,” Prairie went to her chair before sitting on it as she started typing on her computer.

Meanwhile in the Hunter Camp, the Hunters also received the same transmission as the Hunters including Ashe, Grey, and Aile were all inside the 04 building. The screen showing the Ragnarok switched to show Thomas’ wicked smile before he let out a laugh, _“Only a few people can be a part of this new ideal world I’m making! If you can survive the test, then you can be a part of the new world!”_

“This guy is starting to get to my nerves!” Ashe spoke up in irritation before turning to Grey, who was standing on her left, “We must beat this guy real good and teach him a lesson or two!”

“I agree on that!” Grey replied before he and Ashe turned back to the screen.

_“But there is one exception…”_ Thomas spoke up with an evil smile, _“The Chosen Ones, the Mega Men, who managed to survive the Maverick raids and soon become the heroes for defeating Albert… I will give you all the chance to see the coming of the new world… in special seats I provide in Ragnarok II!”_

_‘Chosen Ones…’_ Aile put her hand close to her chest and lowered her head, barely hearing Ashe and Grey talking on her left.

“Come on! Let’s go and put an end to Thomas’ insane plan!” Ashe spoke up to Grey before they walked away.

“Ashe!” Aile spoke up, making Ashe stop in her tracks and let Grey go on ahead of her. Aile turned to the Hunter with a worried look on her face, “I want you to tell Vent something…”

A few minutes had passed and Vent found himself in the satellite in space. Vent pulled out his saber and his buster before he climbed on through a hole on the ceiling sitting next to the nearby wall. Vent jumped out of the hole and fired his charged shot, destroying an army of Galleons in many variants. Vent swung his saber around and cut through a group of Galleon Hunters just as they were about to shoot him.

Vent released his Rising Fang attack, clearing a path from the Mechaniloids on his way as he dashed through them. Vent fired a series of regular buster shots at a Galleon with a blade on its arm before finishing it off with his dashing slash attack. Vent cut through a red wall, which was made of a substance similar to a jelly and was about to go up through the hole on the ceiling, only to be stopped by a familiar dark red Reploid as he teleported in front of him.

“Omega!” Vent recognized the Reploid, “Get out of the way! I need to see Thomas and defeat him before he destroys the world!”

Omega pulled out his purple saber, “The destruction of this world is needed in order to create a new and ideal world. If you don’t like Lord Thomas’ policy to destroy the world before rebuilding it, then I should get rid of you here, even if you’re a Chosen One!”

“Not after I get rid of you first!” Vent charged in with his saber, only to meet with Omega’s purple one.

Vent pushed himself away before releasing a charged shot from his buster, but Omega had dodged the attack quickly before he slammed his fist on the ground and sent out rocks flying at Vent. Vent slashed the rocks away, but didn’t notice that Omega had closed in on him before he released his own charged shot from his dark gray buster.

Vent was knocked far into the other side of the room and hit the wall hard, cancelling his transformation. Omega put his saber to his side and walked towards Vent, who was trying to get up to his feet. Vent reached for the Biometals in his pocket before pulling out Model X and Model O and looked at them closely.

_‘I don’t think I can win with my ZX form, but…’_ Vent turned to Model O, _‘In Model OX, maybe I can…’_ Vent held the Biometals tightly in his hands before turning to Omega, who was getting closer and closer to him, _‘I’m not here for revenge. I’m not here to kill Thomas for personal reasons I have right now…’_ Vent closed his eyes, _‘I’m here to fight to protect them! I want to protect my friends and my family!’_ Vent reopened his eyes and put the Biometals in front of him, “Rock ON! Model OX!”

Dark red armor, which was identical to Omega’s covered Vent’s body before a purple saber appeared in his hand. Vent quickly charged in at Omega, fully in control of himself, and swung his saber at Omega, slightly cracking Omega’s chest armor. Vent quickly pulled out his dark gray buster and released a series of charged shots at Omega and knocked him away against the wall.

Vent charged in once more as Omega had gone back to his battle stance and landed a burning uppercut slash, creating a big scar on the Reploid’s helmet. Vent swung his saber once more at Omega, who managed to block it with his own, before Omega pushed him away and slammed his fist once more to the ground before a pillar of energy appeared from below Vent.

Vent took the attack head on, but managed to dodge Omega’s charged shots in time as he fired them soon after the pillar disappeared. Vent jumped up and did a rolling slash, sending out small sonic boom waves at Omega and froze his hand together with his saber. Vent landed on the ground and quickly followed up the attack with a paralyzing sonic boom, with knocked Omega down.

“I… I know… your power…” Omega slowly got up to his feet, ignoring the circuits appearing on his wounds, “My memories… remember your power… the power that defeated me before…”

Omega teleported out of the area and left Vent on his own, “Wait!”


	19. The Pain of the Past

Vent let out a sigh once he looked around the area and saw that he was on his own, “No use, Omega’s out of here,” Vent walked over to the hole on the ceiling, “But I get the feeling that wasn’t the last time I’m going to see him…” Vent let out another sigh before he transformed back to his ZX form and climbed through the hole.

Vent pulled out his saber and buster once more as more Mechaniloids, which were actually an army of Galleons with their armors golden instead of the normal purple. Vent shot a single buster shot at a nearby golden Galleon Hunter, which took the attack head on but managed to survive. The golden Galleons closed in on Vent, but he released a charged shot from his buster to clear the path.

Vent dashed through a little into the army of golden Galleons before using his Rising Fang attack to clear the way out from more of the Galleons, only to have more of them around him. Vent slashed them away quickly before taking a broken Galleon head and kicked it at the other Galleons, knocking them out like dominoes.

“Wow, that was easy enough…” Vent commented as he looked at the pile of knocked down Galleons before putting away his buster and proceeded with his saber ready.

The brown-haired Guardian went through the door behind the Galleons into a room made of red gel and bits of golden wall. He walked through the red gel on his feet, only to have himself stuck before he pulled out his buster to blast away the sticky gel and moved on deeper into the room. Red spiked balls suddenly fell on him from the hole on the ceiling, but Vent quickly swung his saber around to destroy most of them while a few of them got stuck on his armor.

Vent stepped on a pool of red gel, which sucked him in to the ground quickly and he ended up getting to the lower floor. The Chosen One landed hard on the ground, which was made with pure gold and the red gel wasn’t found in the golden room. Vent looked around in awe, but the room reminded him of the past battle with Omega.

_‘This area… It’s just like Area N where I fought and defeated Omega for the first time…’_ Vent thought as he looked around and walked around in the area.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” A familiar voice was heard and Vent turned to the direction where the voice came from to see the red Mega Man, “Vent, I just wish that I don’t have to see you again like this… as enemies…”

“Then why are you working for Thomas, Boss?” Vent asked, hoping for a good answer, only to have Giro send out a sonic boom at him. The brown-haired Chosen One quickly dodged out of the way, letting the attack to hit the golden wall behind him before he turned back to his former boss, “Why are you trying to kill us now, Boss? Why don’t you come back to us once you come back to life?”

“The answer is very simple, Vent, and I was hoping that you would know the answer now that you’re much older,” Giro swung his saber to his side, “Lord Thomas gave me life, and I’m returning the favor to him. He saved my life, and I’m going to save his life along with his dreams of creating a new world, just like how I saved you and Aile.”

“It’s not the same!” Vent rejected angrily, “Why can’t you see the evil ways Thomas did in order to create a new world?! He sent Mavericks to attack people, and he used me and the other Chosen Ones to go against my friends… and Aile…”

Giro let out a chuckle, “That’s just what he needs. The distraction. A sacrifice is needed to create a new world. Those who became the sacrifice should be proud because without them, a new world is impossible to make,” Giro turned to Vent as his eyes beneath his visor turned into glowing red, “Maybe Aile will feel proud if she becomes the sacrifice for the new world.”

The brown-haired Chosen One let out an angry growl before he angrily charged at Giro with his saber, clashing it against the blond Reploid’s. Giro sent out a Z-shaped slash at Vent, who took the attack head on as he didn’t have the time to dodge and got knocked away to the golden wall behind him.

Vent got back to his feet and pulled out his buster before charging it, allowing Giro to unleash a big slash attack at Vent. Using his saber, Vent blocked the slash but the impact had made him crash into the wall before he could even release his charged shot. Giro jumped back, distancing himself from his former friend before stabbing his saber hard on the ground and small pillars of energy started coming out from the ground.

Vent dodged the pillars by moving in a zigzag pattern before releasing his charged shot and knocked Giro along with his saber back. The Guardian sent out his Rising Fang attack, catching the former boss off guard, and knocked him to the other side of the room. Giro hit the wall hard before sliding down the wall slowly and landed on the ground.

The glowing red eyes had slowly died down a bit, but suddenly went back to the glowing red eyes before Giro picked up his dropped saber and charged at Vent. The two sabers clash, and neither side were weaker as the sabers were in place with both Chosen Ones pushing each other’s saber away. Giro purposely closed in on Vent before landing a hard kick on his stomach, knocking him away.

With Vent down, Giro took Vent’s dropped saber with his free hand and walked over to the fallen Guardian, only to fall victim to the released charged shot from Vent’s buster. Giro was thrown back to the ground before Vent got up and took his saber back as Giro had dropped the two sabers before landing on the golden ground.

Vent looked down at Giro, whose glowing red eyes were no longer visible through the purple visor, and pointed his saber down, “You’re not really Boss, are you? I remember him training me with wooden swords and he never fought dirty before.”

Giro coughed a little before letting out a smile, “You’ve grown strong… Vent…” The Guardian pulled his saber back in surprise, “I know… training you and Aile… isn’t a wasted effort…”

“Boss…” Vent knelt down next to his old boss and friend.

The smile on the blond Chosen One’s face turned into a frown, “That Thomas… he’s looking for you… That’s why… he brought me back… and put some kind of mind controller… to fight against you…” The smile returned to the blond Reploid’s face, “Don’t give up, Vent… He’s… close by…”

Giro’s body glowed brightly before it turned into a small sphere of light and flew away. Vent saw as the light flew away and disappeared before slamming his fists angrily on the ground, “You’ll pay for this, Thomas!”

“Vent!” The brown-haired Guardian turned around as he heard the voice of the silver-haired Hunters coming from behind him.

Vent got up to his feet and turned to the Hunters with the feeling of anger still on his face, “We’ve got to find Thomas and fast! I can’t forgive him for what he did to Boss!”

“Calm down, Vent!” Grey spoke up, “We can’t do much if we don’t know where we should go!”

“Plus…” Ashe added, “Aile wanted you to come back safely. If we rush in without knowing where we’re going, it’s going to cost us our lives!” Ashe let out a sigh before she recalled the event when Aile called her before she was about to leave.

**_-Flashback-_ **

_“Ashe!” Ashe turned to the female brown-haired Guardian, who had a worried look on her face, “I want you to tell Vent something…”_

_“Sure,” Ashe nodded and walked over to Aile, “What is the message?”_

_“I just want to say… that I love him too much to lose him…” Aile lowered her head and put a hand over her stomach, “And I don’t want for this child to live without having a father…”_

_“Okay… I’ll pass it to him,” Ashe nodded and smiled, “Don’t worry, I’ll even drag him back here by force if he decides to do something suicidal!”_

_Aile let out a laugh, “Thanks Ashe…”_

**_-End of Flashback-_ **

“… and that’s what she wanted me to tell you,” Ashe ended her story and Vent nodded in understanding.

“Okay, I understand,” Vent nodded and smiled, “We’ll beat Thomas, and return safely!”

_“That’s not going to happen,”_ A familiar voice echoed in the room as it started shaking, _“Not while I still have something in my sleeves!”_


	20. Model O Biomatch

“Is this an earthquake!?” Ashe asked in panic, “But I thought that we’re in space!”

“I don’t think this is an ordinary quake,” Grey spoke up as he looked around, “I feel an energy reading coming towards us!”

A howling sound was heard before a blur of red and brown broke out of a hole from the ground in front of Vent, “Chosen Ones go no further. Buckfire will not allow!”

“Buckfire…” Grey pulled out his buster guns before taking a step back, “Head’s up guys! This guy isn’t alone!”

The shaking become more violent as water slowly filled the room from the hole Buckfire made before the Model W Pseudoroids, whom Ashe and Grey had beaten before, came into the room and surrounded the Chosen Ones, “We’re surrounded!”

Ashe and Grey turned to each other before nodding and aimed it at Buckfire, who was standing in front of the hole he created before and released their reflect laser and charged shot to knock the Pseudoroid away from the hole. Vent turned back to the Hunters in confusion before he smiled at them, “Thanks! I’ll make sure to beat Thomas for you guys too!”

The brown-haired Chosen One jumped down the hole Buckfire created, landing on the ground made of rusty metal with some red gel covering it, _“Vent, Ragnarok’s core should be nearby. Find a stairway to the top room where Thomas and the core is located.”_

“Thanks Prairie,” Vent reached for the communicator on his ear before looking at the red wall made of gel ahead of him as it transformed into a red stairway and the water in the room was drained as the hole on the ceiling closed down, “The final battle against Thomas is just up ahead…”

_“Be careful, Vent. I don’t know what else Thomas has that’s waiting for your arrival,”_ Prairie paused for a moment before letting out a sad sigh, _“Please come back safely, okay? There are people waiting for your return.”_

“Don’t worry, I will,” Vent replied with a smile before ending the transmission and headed up the stairway.

The revolving stairway seemed to be an endless road before the Guardian finally reached a room, which was the top most room in Ragnarok as the glass ceiling in the room showed the image of space. Vent walked under the glass, heading to a white and golden throne where the former Sage Trinity member was sitting.

“Master Thomas!” Vent spoke up and looked up at the red-haired man, “Your dream of destroying our world ends here. I’ve come to stop your insane plan!”

Thomas rose from his seat with a smile, “There’s no need for you to stop my plan, because you’re already doing what I needed you to do and that is to come here.”

“What do you mean by that!?” Vent asked in confusion before some buzzing noise was heard from his communicator, “Huh? What’s going on?”

_“Vent… Vent…!”_ The voice of the Guardian commander was heard between the buzzing sounds, _“Can you… hear…?”_

“Prairie! What’s going on down there? Why can’t I hear you clearly?” The brown-haired Chosen One reached for his communicator, hoping for a much clearer voice, “Prairie!”

_“Signal… from Ragnarok… Mavericks…”_ Prairie’s voice was starting to break up, _“… Chosen Ones… fighting…”_ More buzzing sounds were heard and Prairie’s voice disappeared completely.

“Prairie! Answer me!” Only buzzing sounds were heard and Vent let out a sigh before turning to Thomas angrily, “What did you do, Thomas!?”

“Do you really want to know?” Thomas walked down from the platform where his throne was, “Ragnarok II is capable of sending a Maverick signal to the world below to destroy the worthless people before I can destroy the filthy world with the powerful laser in this satellite,” Thomas let out an evil smile before he raised his hands, “I’ll show you what kind of destruction is happening!”

Vent’s green eyes went completely white as images started appearing in his head. Aeolus and Atlas, both transformed, were defending the city against an army of different colored Mechaniloids attacking the city. Aeolus had used his jet wings to climb a burning building and grab a crying girl who was stuck on the top floor of the building.

Atlas used her buster guns to punch away any nearby Mechaniloids before slamming her right one to send a wave of fire at the group of Mechaniloids. The fire wave destroyed the Mechaniloids before they attacked the group of people and Reploid hiding in a dark alley. Aeolus landed next to Atlas before letting the girl in his arms go to hide with the others in the alley, only to have them surrounded by more Mechaniloids.

The image of the city disappeared and was replaced by the view of the outer grounds of Hunter Camp, which was filled by armed Hunters. Thetis and Siarnaq were also with the group of Hunters and were fighting in their transformed forms. The Ice Mega Man swung his staff, freezing an army of invisible cannon Mechaniloids, before the Shadow Mega Man finished them off with his shuriken.

Vent’s eyes turned back to green color with a surprised expression on his face, “N-No way…”

Thomas saw the disbelief look on the Guardians face before letting out a smile, “Omega.”

The dark red Reploid, still having the injuries from his earlier battle, teleported to Thomas’ side, “Yes, my Lord.”

“I knew that you’re not going down that easily,” The brown-haired Chosen One noticed the newcomer in the room before turning to the red-haired man, “Now what are you going to do? Make me fight him again? I have the power of Model OX if you haven’t known that!”

“I know, but Omega isn’t going to fight alone,” Thomas stretched out his arm and Omega’s body glowed brightly before turning into a sphere of light and landed on Thomas’ stretched arm as it turned into a brown Biometal, much to Vent’s surprise, “You are going to fight me, with the help of Omega’s power! I am Master Thomas, Model O Biomatch and the crimson Mega Man!”

“I-Impossible!” Vent looked at disbelief as Thomas transformed into his Model O form.

Thomas’ appearance was almost identical to Omega’s, except that the hair coming out of his helmet was his original red color. The saber he was holding in his hand was pink instead of Omega’s purple one and the buster was white and gold in color. The former Sage Trinity member looked at the dark red armor covering his body and smiled before pointing his saber at Vent.

“Let’s see who’s stronger… the original Biomatch of Model O, or the one who combined Model O and Model X together…” Thomas lowered his pink saber and smiled evilly at Vent.

“I’m not going to fight to see who’s the strongest,” Vent spoke up before he transformed into his OX form, “I’m here to stop you, and take the world’s fate back from your hands.”

Both Mega Men charged at each other, clashing their purple and pink sabers together before Vent knocked Thomas’ away and jumped back before pulling out his buster. A few charged shots were released before a few small sonic boom attacks followed them up, but the crimson Mega Man didn’t bother dodging the attacks.

The crimson Mega Man aimed his buster at the Chosen One before letting out gold-colored charged shots at him. Vent dashed under the shots before slamming his fist on the ground, sending a few rocks with charged energy at Thomas, who took the attack head on but wasn’t knocked back by them. The Guardian growled angrily and charged head on with his purple saber before jumping and landing a big slash across the Sage Trinity member’s chest and cracked a little of his armor.

Thomas sent out a few pink sonic booms, which knocked Vent back and off the ground, before following it up with a huge pillar of energy as he slammed his fist on the ground. Vent got up to his feet slowly and ran towards the crimson Mega Man before landing a burning uppercut to cut off some of his arm’s armor and followed it up with a paralyzing sonic boom to knock Thomas off the ground.

Thomas got up from the ground without any problems and let out a smile at Vent, which agitated Vent a bit, “What are you smiling at!?”

The crimson Mega Man let out a laugh, “As fun as that battle was, unfortunately I have to cut it short,” The whole room started shaking and the shaking got more and more violent, “Now’s the time for the grand finale! The power I will use to reset this filthy and disgusting world… after battling to buy the time for the completion of the W Fusion!”

“What!?”


	21. The Power of W Fusion!

A Homing Shot hit the giant ice Pseudoroid on his jaws, but he was barely unaffected by the attack. The Hunters, Ashe and Grey, were almost at their limit as they were panting out of tiredness. The eight Model W Pseudoroids had them surrounded, barely damaged, while the Hunters’ armor had cracks already as they had taken more damage.

“This is bad…” Ashe started between her panting, “We could beat them one by one, but we don’t stand a chance against all of them at once!”

“If only… if only that we have some backup fighters in our side…” Grey spoke up, still pointing his buster guns at the surrounding Pseudoroids.

Two light suddenly teleported in front of them, revealing themselves to have the familiar purple armor with a scythe and the familiar white and blue armor along with a staff. The purple Reploid swung his scythe towards the twin Pseudoroids, slicing them into half before they exploded, while a bottle made of ice dropped down from above Hedgeshock, crushing her.

“Pandora! And Prometheus too!” Grey recognized the Reploid siblings before they turned to him and his partner, “Are you here to help us and defeat Thomas?”

“Don’t be stupid!” Prometheus rejected angrily, “We’re not here to help! We’re here to destroy this annoying satellite for giving us strange call signals!”

“Call signals? What do you mean?” Ashe asked in confusion.

“We’re the voices of Model W…” Pandora replied softly, “The Model Ws here called us…”

The whole room started shaking and it got more and more violently as rocks started raining down on the Hunters and the Reploid siblings while water was slowly being drained out of the room. The remaining Pseudoroids yelled out in pain before their bodies started glowing and they turned into spheres of light before they all went up through the ceiling. The Reploid siblings suddenly yelled out in pain before their bodies glowed in yellow color and sparks started appearing on their bodies.

“Pandora! No!” Grey was about to run over to the siblings, only to be stopped by Ashe.

“Grey! We have something else to worry about!” Ashe got her buster guns ready as Mechaniloids started surrounding them instead.

“We’ve got to fight!” The male Hunter got his buster guns ready, “We have to protect those two from these Mavericks!”

Meanwhile on the top most room, six spheres of white light had started coming out from the ground below Vent and Thomas. Two bigger spheres of light, which were yellow in color, soon came along with the smaller spheres before they were all absorbed by Thomas. The crimson Mega Man’s body started glowing as he let out an evil laugh which echoed throughout the whole room.

“What’s happening!?” Vent tried reaching for his communicator to contact the base, only to find that buzzing noise was interfering his connection, “Darn it!”

_“There is no one to help you, lowly Chosen One,”_ Thomas spoke up as his body’s size started growing little by little, _“The Mega Men created by Albert… they’re the lowest trash in this world!”_ The red-haired man’s body size reached the ceiling of the room, _“I am the true and pure Chosen One, the one and only man chosen by a legendary Reploid himself,”_ The shape of two heads started appearing on his shoulders, _“Witness the legendary power of Model O and Model W… Fusion Omega W!”_

The light left the man’s body, leaving him in a gigantic armor which almost covered the whole room. There was a crimson head, similar to Omega’s head, on his right shoulder along with a giant pink saber in his right hand. His left hand is giant dark blue cannon, along with a dark blue head as his left shoulder. Thomas’ main body is covered with gigantic golden armor along with a blue gem on his forehead. The man looked down at Vent with his golden expressionless face.

_“Model O alone, or Model OX… They don’t even stand a chance against this power! The power of the legend!”_ Thomas spoke up, his voice echoing in the room.

“He’s no kidding…” The Guardian looked closely at Thomas’ new form from top to bottom, “His body has become really big!”

_“… ent… Vent…!”_ The Guardian commander’s voice was heard once more through Vent’s communicator, _“Vent! Thank goodness I finally manage to get through to you!”_

“Prairie! How’s the situation on the ground?” Vent asked through the communicator.

_“We have the four Chosen Ones fighting the Mavericks, but…”_ Prairie paused for a moment before continuing, _“Ragnarok… The Ragnarok is moving off its orbit! It’s… it’s… it’s going to head back to the Earth! It’s going to crash to the Oil Field and create and explosion capable of destroying half of the Earth population!”_

“That’s bad!” Vent turned back to Thomas angrily, “I need to go now, Prairie… Thomas’ defeat is our first priority in order to destroy Ragnarok before it hits the Earth!” Vent closed his eyes and put a hand on his chest, “Believe in me, Prairie…”

_“Vent…”_ More buzzing sounds were heard before Prairie’s voice disappeared completely once again.

_“If defeating me is your first priority, then do you have what it takes to defeat me?”_ Thomas asked, looking down at Vent as he pulled out his purple saber.

“Your objective is to destroy the world to create a better one, but you’ll soon destroy it again once you think that the new world is going chaotic once more,” Vent pulled out his dark grey OX buster, “The world itself isn’t going to be completely perfect no matter how many times you destroy it. If you’re going to be the Mega Man who wants to destroy the world, then I’ll be the Mega Man who saves it from evil people like you!”

_“Resistance is futile, young man,”_ Thomas spoke up, _“The world can be a peaceful place and an ideal place for people and Reploids alike, but there are people who reject the concept of that ideal world! It’s unforgivable!”_

Vent was about to charge in to attack, but found himself unable to move once he looked up at the gem on Thomas’ forehead, _‘What!? What’s going on!? Why can’t I move!?’_

The last thing the Guardian saw was the sight of Thomas swinging his giant saber towards him before his vision went white all of the sudden. A sphere of light, a Cyber-elf, suddenly came to his sight before it materialized into the form of the blond man he was familiar with, “I’m going to help you in this fight, Vent,” The man let out a smile before turning away as six more lights came down in front of the man, “My friends and I will lend you the strength to defeat Thomas!”

“Boss…”


	22. Legendary Heroes

_“What!?”_ The red-haired man asked in disbelief as the saber he swung down had hit a big white sphere of light instead of the brown-haired Guardian.

Meanwhile inside the sphere of light, Vent was looking at Giro as a Cyber-elf in front of him. Three other Cyber-elves were on Giro’s left side and three others on his right side. Giro let out a sigh, “You don’t realize that you’re already strong even without Model O, do you?”

“But I couldn’t beat Omega with my ZX form,” Vent rejected calmly, “And I don’t think I stand a chance against Thomas’ Model O form without my OX form.”

“It’s because you didn’t truly mean what you said,” Vent looked at his former boss in confusion, “You said that you would protect people, but that’s not the desire in your heart. Your desire is no longer for revenge, but instead your desire is to fight anyone you think is wrong.”

“But you know that Thomas is wrong to destroy the world!” Vent raised his voice in anger, only to have Giro shake his head.

“His actions might be wrong, but his heart isn’t,” The brown-haired Guardian looked at his former boss in confusion, “His heart desired peace in the world, but supreme power has driven his insanity out and clouded the true intention of his heart,” Giro put his hand over his chest, “You won’t succeed in anything you do if it doesn’t come from your heart. Your heart is your true desire.”

“My desire…” Vent looked down at his chest and put a hand on his chest, “My heart is my true desire…”

“Model Z had taught me a lesson about self-sacrifice,” Vent turned to Giro, “A sacrifice without the heart to do so is meaningless, and I saved you and Aile out of my own desire. That’s what my heart wants and I don’t regret my decision at all,” A smile appeared on the blonde’s face, “If your true desire is to protect people, then my friends and I will lend you a hand…”

Vent nodded and smiled, “Thanks Boss…”

The sphere of light disappeared, leaving the brown-haired Guardian with his usual red armor instead of dark red. Seven small lights hovered around him as Vent looked up at Thomas and pointed his saber upwards, “Thomas! I respect how you’re trying to make the world a better place, but destroying the world is going to make other people suffer!”

 _“Sacrifice is needed for a better future. This world is fated to be reset!”_ Thomas slammed his pink saber at Vent.

Vent sidestepped from the saber before jumping on to it and ran up at his head, landing a rolling slash on the blue gem. Thomas aimed his dark blue cannon at the Guardian, who didn’t have the time to dodge as he fell and took the big purple laser fired from the cannon. The brown-haired Chosen One was almost thrown back against the wall, but he managed to land safely on the ground right in front of the wall.

A pair of golden tomahawk blades appeared and headed towards Vent, who dodged them without noticing that the blades made a U-turn to go back to him and hit his back. Vent got back to his feet and pulled out his ZX buster before aiming it at the blue gem on the giant’s head, only to have the released charged shot missed due to the long distance between him and the gem.

Ice spikes started appearing, raining down on the Chosen Ones as he carefully dodged the spikes before running towards the giant Mega Man to release his charged shot. The shot hit the blue gem, only to have the giant Mega Man counter with giant spiked wheels rolling towards Vent. He dodged the attack by sidestepping and got ready as the pink saber Thomas was holding had started glowing.

The red-haired man stabbed his saber on the spot Vent used to be, but he had jumped away from the saber along with some rocks thrown at him before climbing the saber to land another rolling slash at the blue gem once more. The dark blue cannon started glowing as the Guardian landed on the ground, sending out some fireballs in the size of Vent’s body.

Vent braced for the attack, taking most of the fireballs while having himself knocked back due to the impact before he jumped on the cannon and land another rolling slash on the blue gem. Electricity-charged seeds started coming out from behind Thomas, landing around Vent to create an electric barrier on his body.

The Guardian fell to his knees, but managed to get up in time before the rocks around him started to form into rock monsters. Vent slashed the rocks into pieces, making them unable to resurrect, before cursors started appearing all over his body. The dark blue cannon fired a dark purple shot towards the cursor on the right hand, knocking the green saber from Vent’s hand.

Purple shots were fired from the dark blue cannon at the cursors on Vent’s head, chest, and legs, but he managed to get away from the fired shots and picked his saber up before climbing on to the cannon and jumped to land another rolling slash on the gem before creating a small crack on it. The cracked blue gem started glowing before a black shadow appeared with a pair of sabers.

“Aeolus!” Vent recognized the shadow figure.

Just as Aeolus was about to send out a thunder ball at him, one of the seven lights separated itself to materialize into a green Reploid with two pink sabers. The green Reploid clashed his sabers with Aeolus’, cancelling his attack, and allowed Vent to take the opening to climb on to the giant saber and land a small slash on the glowing gem.

Aeolus’ shadow disappeared along with the green Reploid before the shadow of the Fire Mega Man appeared with her knuckle busters. Just as Atlas was about to send a wave of fire at Vent, another light from around Vent separated itself before materializing into a male orange-armored Reploid with identical knuckle busters as Atlas’ and punched her away to let Vent climb back on to the saber and land another slash on the glowing blue gem.

Atlas’ shadow disappeared along with the Reploid before the shadow of Thetis appeared with a pair of ice dragons to be sent out against the Guardian. A female Reploid with light blue armor and a staff appeared and destroyed the ice dragons with her own, allowing Vent to climb and land another slash on the glowing blue gem.

The shadow and Reploid disappeared, leaving Vent to deal with the Shadow Mega Man as he had his kunai ready in one hand while a shuriken in the other. A gust of wind blew before a male Reploid with white helmet and purple armor appeared behind Siarnaq with a kunai on the Mega Man’s throat. Vent climbed up and landed another slash, giving the gem more cracks.

The shadow of the Mega Man and the Reploid disappeared before a blond-haired Mega Man fell down on Vent with his green saber ready. The green saber suddenly made contact with another green saber, which belonged to a Reploid with red armor before the shadow of Giro was knocked back by the buster shot coming from a blue Reploid standing beside the red one.

Vent climbed up the saber and slammed his own to the gem, making more cracks on it as Thomas yelled out in pain. The Guardian jumped down after the shadow and the two Reploids disappeared and noticed four shadows started appearing in front of him with one of them had the identical appearance as him.

“No way!” Vent commented as he looked at the four shadows in disbelief, “Even the shadow me, Aile, Ashe, and Grey too…”

“Go ahead, Vent,” Giro materialized in front of Vent in his transformed form, “I’ll take care of this shadows and you go up to end Thomas’ insane plan!”

The Guardian nodded before climbing up on the saber and slammed his green saber with all his might, completely destroying the blue gem before it stopped glowing. Thomas let out a pained yell before his giant armor exploded, destroying most of the room. The red-haired man, who had the cracked armor of Model O, fell to his knees in front of Vent as the explosion died down.

The man looked up as Vent approached him, “Go ahead… just… finish me off…” Without a word, the Guardian put away his saber and buster, “But… why…?”

“My intention has always been to stop you, not to kill you,” Vent knelt down beside Thomas and offered him a hand, “Come on, let’s stop this satellite from crashing to the Earth and go back to the others.”

The former Sage Trinity member looked at Vent’s hand before letting out a laugh, “Don’t be stupid… I can’t go back…” Thomas coughed a bit, “The only way to stop this satellite… is to let me explode along with you and the other pests on board!”

“What?!” Vent backed down in disbelief as he saw Thomas’ body glowing.


	23. The Crumbling Satellite

The female silver-haired Hunter released her reflect laser at a single black helicopter-like Mechaniloid, destroying it, before she let out a sigh, “That should be the last of them…” Ashe turned to her partner, who was no longer standing beside her as he had run over to the Reploid siblings kneeling in pain behind them.

“Pandora!” Grey knelt down in front of the female Reploid, “Pandora, are you okay?”

The room started shaking once more before the Reploid siblings started disappearing as they let out pained yells, “The Model W…!” Prometheus spoke up weakly, “The Model W… is falling apart! Our source of power… is fading away…!”

“What?!” Ashe asked in disbelief as she ran over to Grey and the siblings, “Then the satellite is crumbling apart as well!” The female Hunter turned to her partner, “Come on, Grey! We have to go and help Vent!”

“I’m not leaving Pandora here!” Grey rejected as he turned to his partner, “Not when she’s in great pain like this!”

“G… Grey…” The male Hunter turned to the younger sibling as she motioned for him to come closer, “That Guardian… he… is fighting… Thomas… right now…”

“Don’t speak!” Grey took both of Pandora’s hands in his before looking straight to her eyes, “We’ll take you and Prometheus back! We’ll nurse you back to health!”

“Stupid…” Prometheus spoke up before giving out a glare at the male Hunter, “Without Model W… do you really think… we’re gonna survive…?” The purple-armored Reploid let out a laugh as he turned away, “We’re finished! You’re more than welcomed to laugh at our helplessness!” Prometheus turned back to the Hunters with a weak smile, “Go on! Laugh! I know that you want to!”

“No…” Grey closed his eyes and shook his head, “Is there… is there nothing we can do for you guys?”

“Grey… come…” Pandora whispered weakly as Grey nodded and obeyed, “We’ll help you… to escape…”

“What are you talking about, Pandora?!” Prometheus protested with an angry yell, only to make him cough, “Do you really… like this jerk…?”

“This is our last chance… Prometheus…” The white and blue-armored Reploid crawled weakly towards Grey before looking at him with a weak smile, “To repent… for our sins…”

“Y-You can’t… be serious…” Prometheus looked at his younger sister in disbelief.

“Grey…” Pandora looked at the male Hunter with a weak smile, “Thank… you…”

“P-Pandora…” Grey saw the female Reploid in front of him closed her eyes and leaned in towards him before giving him a kiss on his lips as her body along with her brother’s slowly disappeared until nothing remained, “No… this can’t be happening! Pandora! Prometheus!”

“Get a hold of yourself, Grey!” The male Reploid felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see his partner with a frown on her face, “There’s nothing we can do… You have to let them go…”

“Ashe…” Grey got up to his feet with his head lowered and had his back turned to his partner, “I… I understand…”

There was silence between them before more and bigger rocks started showering on them from the ceiling. The two Hunters’ bodies started glowing before both of them disappeared from the room with a bright white flash, leaving the room to be flooded with rocks of all sizes. The Hunters found themselves back in the Hunter Camp, along with a worried Aile waiting.

“It’s good to see that you’re okay…” Aile spoke up with a smile, before noticing that there were only the two of them, “Where’s Vent? Did you two see him in the satellite?”

Grey stayed silent while having his head down, leaving Ashe to speak up, “He’s still in there… He’s fighting against Thomas…”

Aile gasped in disbelief before turning to the big screen in the room, which showed the image of the satellite as it started crumbling little by little, “He is going to survive… He has to!”

A loud sighing sound was heard, getting the attention of the two females as they turned to see Grey in his Reploid form with his back turned to them, “I… I need some fresh air…”

The two females saw the Reploid run out of the room before Aile turned to the female Hunter, “What happened to him?”

The Hunter let out a sigh before she transformed back to her human form and replied, “Prometheus and Pandora didn’t make it back…”

“I see…” Aile nodded in understanding and frowned, “Poor Grey…”

Meanwhile in the top most room of the satellite, a big sphere of white light was in the crumbling room. The brown-haired Guardian opened his eyes, seeing that he was back in his human form. He looked around, seeing only white color around him with the seven lights hovering around his body. The lights separated from his body to materialize into his former boss along with six figures he wasn’t familiar with, but the ones he felt he had seen moments ago.

“Vent,” Giro spoke up with a smile, “You’ve finally defeated Thomas, with the strength of your heart.”

The Guardian shook his head, “If it wasn’t for you and your friends, I wouldn’t even stand a chance against Thomas…”

“But we’re all within you,” Giro turned to the six figures behind him, “Weil’s spirit is in this satellite, and so are these heroes after the seal was broken.”

“Heroes?” Vent asked before Giro turned back to him.

“Yes,” The blond-haired man nodded, “These six are the legendary heroes whose power and consciousness were contained in the Biometals. We all helped you to fight those shadows of Mega Men that Thomas created.”

“I see…” Vent nodded in understanding before taking a good look at the six legendary heroes behind his former boss, “No wonder I feel like I’ve seen them before… They were fighting alongside me…”

Giro nodded and smiled, “Yes, and it is time for us to take you away from here.”

“Boss, where are you taking me?” Vent asked in confusion.

“To the place where you should be,” The Guardian kept looking at him in confusion, “You transformed back and collapsed after Thomas blew himself and the satellite up.”

“Oh, so that’s what truly happened…” Vent let out a nod and smiled, “Okay, let’s go…”


	24. World Peace

The blonde commander of the Guardians looked nervously at the popup screen in front of her as one of the operators continued on speaking, “The Ragnarok has crumbling apart… The small pieces of Ragnarok had slowly burnt through the atmosphere… They’re no longer harmful to the Oil Field…”

“Vent…” Prairie whispered softly before the door behind her slid open and the female brown-haired Guardian came into the room.

“Prairie! I saw from the Hunter Camp that Ragnarok is falling apart,” Prairie listened to her, but didn’t dare to turn to her, “Prairie… what happened to Vent…?”

There was a long pause before Prairie turned to the worried Guardian with a frown on her face, “I’m sorry… Aile…”

“N-No way…” Aile backed away in disbelief before lowering her head and let a single tear fall from her face before she turned away from the commander, “I… I-I’ll be in my room…”

Prairie stood still, unable to do anything, as she watched the brown-haired Guardian run out of the room with her sniffles heard even after she was out of the room. The commander let out a sad sigh before turning her head back to the screen, _‘I knew it… History is going to repeat by itself and Vent went into the same fate as Zero did…’_

One of the operators turned to the commander, who walked towards the door without a word, “Commander Prairie? Where are you going?”

Prairie left the room without replying to her operator, heading straight for the elevator. She went up to the deck area, where it was bathed with lights of the stars in the dark sky of the night. She walked over to the railing and leaned on it, looking up at the stars sadly. Some shooting stars were seen occasionally as she looked up with a frown.

“Those are… pieces of Ragnarok…” Prairie whispered softly, “Falling to the Earth like shooting stars… just like back then…” Prairie let out another sad sigh before she looked down, “And that memory was still burning in my head… until now…” The commander covered her body with her pink coat entirely out of cold before she slowly walked back to the door leading into the airship.

Prairie looked back once more before turning her head away, not noticing that a big sphere of light suddenly came behind her along with seven smaller lights, “But that’s not the end of that memory this time.”

The commander gasped in surprise and turned around to see the blond Reploid standing in front of the big sphere of light with a smile on his face, “G-Giro…?”

The Reploid nodded before turning to the sphere of light behind him, “But I’m not alone.”

The sphere of light disappeared, revealing the male brown-haired Guardian in his human form lying on the ground on the deck, “Vent!”

Prairie immediately ran over to the unconscious Guardian and knelt beside him to check his pulse before letting out a sigh in relief, “Thank goodness he’s still alive…” The commander in pink looked up at the blond-haired Reploid, “Thank you, Giro…”

“I’m not the only one who helped him out,” The six lights went to Giro’s left and right sides before they materialized into six Reploids familiar to him.

“You’re…” Prairie carefully put Vent back down before getting up to her feet and turned to the green Reploid, light blue Reploid, and orange Reploid on Giro’s left side, “Sage Harpuia… Fairy Leviathan… Fighting Fefnir…” She turned to the three Reploids on Giro’s right side, “Hidden Phantom… and…” The red Reploid and blue Reploid walked over to the commander before she smiled sadly, “Zero… X…”

“The seal Commander Ciel made to seal Weil was broken due to their consciousness,” Giro spoke up, “But they couldn’t have their peaceful rests until Vent beat Thomas and freed them from the prison in Ragnarok.”

“We were trapped,” The blue Reploid, X, continued before turning to Vent with a smile, “but this young man had freed us all…”

“I see…” Prairie let out a smile back before it shortly disappeared as she turned to the red Reploid, “Zero… where is Sis? Where is the first commander?”

“Don’t worry, Ciel will be fine,” The red Reploid, Zero flashed a smile he rarely let out, “She was freed along with us, and she’s going to live with all of us safely.”

The smile returned to the commander’s face before she turned back to the blond-haired Reploid, “Giro, please come back here to us… Stay with us…” Prairie put a hand on her chest in a short pause before looking up at the Reploid with a faint blush on her face, “Please stay with me!”

Giro gave her a smile before shaking his head, “I’m sorry Commander, but I can’t… I’m only a Cyber-elf now. I don’t have a body for me to life in.”

“I can ask Fleuve to make you one! So please…” Prairie pleaded as she took a step closer to Giro, “Please stay…”

“I’m a new model Reploid,” Giro spoke up, “Even if I come back to life, I’m not programmed to live longer than five more years…”

“O-Oh…” The commander let out a frown before lowering her head, “I… see…”

“How much time do you have left, Commander?” Giro’s question made Prairie raise her head back to face him, “How much longer are you programmed to live?”

“I don’t really know…” Prairie let out a sad sigh, “I think I only have fifty years left the most…”

“I see,” The blond Reploid nodded in understanding before he turned to the six Reploids with him, “Let’s all go now. Commander Ciel must be waiting up there…”

The six Reploids nodded before they turned back into small lights again along with Giro and flew away, but Zero stayed behind. He saw that Prairie had walked over to Vent and put his arm over her shoulder before getting up. She turned to the door with the unconscious Vent with her, not noticing the smiling Reploid before he called out to her, “Alouette…”

The commander gasped in surprise after hearing her being called by her old name and turned to the red Reploid, “Zero… it’s been a very long time since anyone called me by that name…”

“And I don’t want you to forget that,” Zero smiled before turning away and turned into a small light, “Take care, Alouette…”

The commander in pink watched as the light flew up before letting out a sad smile, _‘A wonderful nostalgia, Zero…’_


	25. The End of the Battle

Months had passed since the defeat of Thomas and peace had once again returned. The four Chosen Ones had decided their new ways of live once they fully recovered from the injuries from the last battle. Aeolus and Atlas decided to rejoin the Guardians, while Thetis and Siarnaq joined the Hunters along with Ashe and Grey.

The number of Mavericks had rapidly decreased since the defeat of Thomas, but they hadn’t disappeared completely. Mikhail, the last of the Sage Trinity, was appointed as the Wise One as he was the remaining one of the three Sage Trinity members. The human and Reploid equality laws which were agreed by Thomas and Albert were still existent, but unlike when Albert was still a member, the Maverick survivors didn’t have to report to the Legion HQ.

It was a clear day in the Hunter Camp, but a certain male Hunter wasn’t feeling to pleasant himself to enjoy the good weather. Grey let out a sigh as he sat on a rock, looking at the big waterfall in front of him. The image of the certain female Reploid kept coming back to haunt him over and over again, despite the efforts of Ashe and Thetis along with the other Hunters to cheer him up.

“I knew that you’re going to be here again,” The male Reploid lazily turned to the direction where the familiar voice came from to see his partner, “And what’s with that gloomy look on your face?”

“None of your concern,” Grey turned away from her, only to have Ashe turn him back to face her, “What? Can you just leave me alone for just one second?”

“Not when you’re still that depressed!” Ashe replied with an annoyed tone before letting out a sigh and a frown appeared on her face, “It’s Pandora again, isn’t it?”

The male Hunter let out a sad sigh before slowly turning away, “Is it really that easy to guess?” Grey looked up at the top of the waterfall, “She’s just that hard to forget… not after…”

“Come on, cheer up already!” Ashe put a hand on the Reploid’s shoulder, making him turn to her, “Pandora doesn’t want you to be sad all the time, don’t you think?” Ashe saw the Reploid nodded before he once again turned away from her. The female Hunter let out a sigh before sitting down on the ground, leaning against the rock Grey was sitting on, “Anyway… I’ve been talking to Prairie lately about her sister Ciel’s love interest…”

“Why do you have to bring up similar topics?” The Reploid asked flatly, but was ignored completely.

“I didn’t realize that she actually fell in love with a Reploid…” Ashe looked up at the sky with a sad smile, “But too bad that the Reploid was destroyed while saving the world… She also said that it’s not possible for a human and a Reploid to be in a relationship back then because of the war between humans and Reploids…”

“I really don’t care whatever story it is you’re telling,” Grey let out another sigh before he noticed that his partner had got up to her feet with her back turned to him.

“Even now, after the humans and Reploids formed a truce… it’s still not possible…” A sighing sound was heard coming from her before she turned back to Grey with a smile, “But what I’m going to say is that there are plenty of other girls, though… Whether they’re far or near…”

“Huh?” Ashe turned around before Grey got off the rock, “What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing… it’s not that important…” Ashe turned her head to Grey, “Aile is going to give birth sooner or later. You wanna come with me to the Guardian Base?”

“Uh…” The Reploid turned his head to the waterfall before turning back to her, “I’ll catch up later I guess. I still want to hang out around here a bit longer.”

“Okay,” Ashe walked away from Grey, leaving him to stare at the waterfall once more before a familiar Biometal suddenly came out of Grey’s pocket.

_“I think I get it now…”_ The Biometal spoke up, getting the attention of the Reploid.

“What do you get, Model A? And more importantly, why were you in my pocket?” Grey asked, getting a short silence from the Biometal, “Hey, what’s wrong with you anyway?”

_“It’s just that Ashe hasn’t been herself lately…”_ Model A sighed, _“She said something about a love life a few weeks ago,”_ The Biometal turned to Grey, _“I think I might have a clue about who the special one she talked about back then…”_ Grey stared at the Biometal in confusion, still not getting the conversation they were having.

Meanwhile in the highway area, a male brown-haired Guardian was looking at the broken building of Slither Inc. with a brown metal object in his hand. The Guardian let out a smile as he turned to the building’s broken front door as the wind blew his long brown hair back and forth. He closed his eyes, recollecting all the happy and the sad moments he had with his boss while clutching the metal object in his hand.

“Today is the day, Boss,” The Guardian spoke up, his eyes still closed, “Aile and I are already married, and the child should come today…” He reopened his eyes and looked at the metal object in his hand, “And you’re right about my strength. Model O isn’t the power I truly need,” He put his free hand on his chest, “I’m already strong with my friends by my side and with power of my heart…”

The Guardian threw the brown metal from his hand, far away to drown into the small lake under the highway. He flashed another smile before reaching for his communicator on his ear as the familiar voice of the Guardian commander was heard, _“Vent! You have to come back to the base, right now! The baby is coming.”_

“Don’t worry Prairie, I’m doing okay… wait, what!? Aile is going to give birth now!?” Vent suddenly noticed the topic of the conversation and panicked before he ended the connection by accident, “Prairie, transfer me back to the base!” There was no answer, leaving Vent to let an angry growl, “Why do I have to so stupid to disconnect it accidentally?! Now I need to find a transerver to go back, and fast!”

Back in the Guardian Base, Aile was in the medic wing along with Prairie, Muguet, and Rose. The two silver-haired Hunters had already been waiting outside the door when the brown-haired Guardian ran out of the elevator and stopped once he was in front of the Hunters. Ashe let out a sigh, “You’re late, Vent! Now you’re going to wait out here with us.”

“Great! Just great!” Vent leaned on the wall near the door, panting, before he pushed himself up when he heard a pained yell coming from the inside, “Aile? Aile! Is that you?! Are you okay?!”

“It’s normal for her to be in pain, Vent,” The Guardian turned to the female Hunter, who had let out a sigh, “You know nothing about normal child birth, do you?”

“He’s not the only clueless one, though…” Ashe turned to Grey, who was as confused as Vent was, “I’m a Reploid, so I don’t think I should naturally know about those stuff…”

“Okay, you’re a Reploid, and I’m fine with you not knowing,” The Hunters turned to Vent, who had his ear on the door, as Ashe gave him a glare, “But not this guy. He’s just too stupid for not knowing!”

“Just a little more! Hang in there, Aile!” The faint voice of the Guardian commander was heard from behind the door before Aile’s pained yelling was heard once more, “The baby is almost out!”

“You can do it, Aile…” Rose’s very faint voice was heard before the sound of baby crying was heard.

“She… did it…” Vent turned to the Hunters with a big smile, “She did it! The baby is born! I’m officially a father!”

“And a very enthusiastic father, that is,” The Guardian turned around to see that the door had opened to reveal Prairie with a smile on her face, “Congratulations, Vent. It’s a healthy baby girl.”

“C-Can I see her? And how’s Aile doing now?” Vent asked nervously before Prairie moved away to reveal Aile on the bed, covered in the newly replaced white blanket.

“She’s done a great job and she needs a lot of rest, but you can see her for a moment,” Vent immediately rushed into the room and was about to head to Aile’s bed before the older nurse stopped him while the younger nurse held a pink blanket in her arms, “I-Is that her? My daughter?”

Rose gave him a nod before giving him the baby for him to hold, “Congratulations, Vent… You’re a father…”

“You can see your wife, but you need to let her rest a lot,” Muguet smiled at the Guardian before she left along with Rose to leave the two Guardians alone.

Vent took a peek into the pink blanket before smiling as he saw the look of his newborn daughter. The baby had the same hair color as her parents, which was brown, and was sleeping with the heat from her father’s body along with the blanket. Seeing that his wife had noticed his presence in the room, Vent walked over to Aile’s bed with the baby girl in his arms.

“Good job, Aile,” The male Guardian let out a smile before the female let out a weak smile in return before noticing the pink blanket in his arms.

“Vent… is that…?” Aile asked weakly, getting a nod from her husband as he removed some of the pink cloth covering the baby’s face.

“She’s our beautiful little one. Want to hold her?” Aile nodded weakly before Vent put the baby in Aile’s arms.

The baby wriggled a bit as Aile’s hand ran through the baby’s small face before the female Guardian let out a sad smile as a single tear slid down her face, “She’s… really… beautiful… and I’m… so happy…”

More tears started pouring down from her face, making the male Guardian grow worried, “A-Aile, why are you crying? Are you still hurt?”

Aile shook her head before wiping away some of the tears away, “So… this… t-this is what my mom felt… this is the happiness she felt when she had me…”

“I’m sure it is,” Vent whispered and smiled before taking a seat on a chair next to her bed and leaned against Aile’s head a little, “Thanks, Aile… I can’t be happier without you and our daughter…”

“And I bet you’re happy to feel how your dad felt when you were born…” Aile turned to her husband with a smile, only to have her smile to turn into a frown after seeing her husband’s frown, “What’s wrong?”

“My dad… he abandoned my mom after finding out that she was pregnant with me…” Vent curled his hands into fists angrily, “I can’t forgive that man…”

“Vent…” The female Guardian whispered before she slowly sat up while pulling up the blanket covering her body, holding the baby in her right arm and put her free hand on Vent’s cheek to pull it to her way, “But if it wasn’t for your dad… I won’t be able to have a brave, kind, caring, and handsome husband like you…”

“Aile…” Vent saw the smile on his wife’s face before smiling back and held her hand before getting up from his seat and leaned in to her to give her a kiss on the lips.

“Plus…” The smile on Aile’s face soon disappeared, “My dad died out of sickness before I was born, so you and Giro are the only men I know the most other than the other transporters…” Aile let out a sad sigh, “So your dad left, huh…” She looked back at Vent with a worried look on her face, “But you’re not going to leave me, are you?”

“I promise, I won’t. That day, I vowed to you that I’ll stick with you no matter what happens. In sickness or health, I’ll be there for you…” Vent let out a smile, which brought more tears to his wife’s eyes.

“Thank you, Vent… You’ve made me so happy…” Aile leaned in for another kiss on the lips, with Vent kissing her back.

“So…” Vent gently broke the kiss and turned to the baby in Aile’s arm, “What should we name her?”

“She’s a star… our star…” Aile wrapped her arms around the sleeping baby, “How about Estelle?”

“Estelle…” Vent nodded and smiled, “It fits her, Aile…”

As the couple leaned in for another kiss, a small party was being held above the clouds. An orange Reploid was running around in excitement with a silent Reploid who had a white helmet and purple armor in a headlock. As the orange Reploid was approaching a female light blue Reploid, she pulled out her staff before hitting the orange Reploid and left towards a green Reploid who was talking to a male blue Reploid.

Another Reploid, who had blond hair and glasses, watched the whole scene and let out a small laugh, “Fefnir is as wild as ever even in parties like this, I think…”

“It’s a happy occasion, Giro,” The Reploid turned around to see a red Reploid with a smile on his face as a blonde-haired girl was holding his arm, “It’s a new family member for your foster children.”

“Zero! Commander Ciel!” The Reploid, Giro, let out a smile before looking down at the couple, “I suppose I couldn’t happier…”

“Fefnir, you’re so drunk!” A feminine yell was heard as the light blue Reploid had pinned down the orange Reploid down with her staff while having her other arm around the green Reploid’s.

“And the four Guardians of Neo Arcadia seem to be enjoying the party to celebrate the new family member as well,” The girl, Ciel, spoke up with a smile as she saw the four Guardians along with their leader.

“It’s all thanks to you,” Giro turned to Zero, who gave him a smile, “If you hadn’t rescued them years ago, they wouldn’t have lived for this event to happen.”

Giro returned the smile before turning back down to the couple, “I suppose… And I’m happy now that they’re happy together as a family…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might write another sequel, depending on the popularity from both here and FFN. There's one reader requesting for the sequel, but the limited leisure time might be a problem. If I have a lot of request and/or this series is popular enough, I'll consider a sequel even if the update might come very slowly. Please leave your opinion in the comments! :)


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